The Indigent Poor of Paris

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 85, 18 April 1885, Page 3

The Indigent Poor of Paris

The latest report of the Bureau de Bienfaisanco shows a perceptible, though not vory large, diminution of people seeking relief as compared with the numbers of 1880. At that time Paris contained a population of 1,988,606, among whom were 123,735 indigents, or G'22 per cent, of the total. At the present time the population hos increased to 2,269,000, and the proportion of indigents is only 543 per cent. This diminution is not equally spread over all quarters of the capital, for in 13th arrondissement it has risen to 1237 per cent, and in the 20th to 12'2_ per cent, while in the eighth and ninth it has decreased to as low as 1 '65. In all the arrondissements the proportion of women seeking relief is conconsiderably greater than of men, there being 41 of the former to 24 of the latter— not a matter for much wonder considering how wretchedly Parisian workmen are paid for their labour. It is somewhat singular

that Paris and the Department of tho Seine should furnish soc omparatively few paupers, the proportion out of every 1,000 being only 227, while the provinces furnish 706 and foreigners 67. Of every 1,000 foreigners on the relief books Germans figure for 407, Belgians for 356, Dutch for

72, Italians for 51, and English for 20. Over ,a fourth of the indigent population either find gratuitous lodgings or occupy rooms at lesß than 100 francs per annum rent; about one-half live at a higher rental, varying from 100 t0'203 francs ; 61 per cent of the lodgings are "tenanted by ono bed, and the remainder by two, four, or even five. Every profession, every trade, is represented, literateurs and tha fine arts included,