DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 200, 22 August 1905, Page 3

DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD.

MELBOURNE POOR SUPPLIED WITH BREAD AXD lIEAT. The following description of a. distribution of food at rhe Salvation Ar.ny headquarters (Melbourne) i≤ published by the Melbourne "Herald": At the Salvation Army headquarters, Bourke-streei. this morning, there was a distribution of food to the unemployed. Messrs. T. K. Bennett and Woolcock, batchers, hud given :2001b of meat: and Mr. W. M. Hennessy. baker, of Alalvern and Brunswick, had givfn 150 loaves, which the Salvation Army supplemented with an equal gift from their own resources. The distribution was managed by a committee of the unemployed themselves,, and was systematic to a degree. Applications for assistance had been received at a former meeting of the unemployed, the eases had been investigated, the number of ehildrn verified, and then tickets were issued at the next meeting of the selected persons. This morning the holders of tickets filed, half a dozen at a time, from the right-of-way beside the Salvation Army headquarters into a large room. Each man received a couple or three pounds of meat., and two or three loaves, according to the number of his children. All the men were personally known by the committee. Nearly every applicant had provided himself with a clean canvas bag. and. having got his share, made himself scarce as quickly as possible. They were manifestly a sober, decent lot of men. the majority able-bodied, though a few were stricken with :*g-? or crippled. Taken altogether, the distribution was managed with the utmost earo that every crumb or morsel of meat should go where it was needed. Unfortunately, when the whole supply was gone, there were many unsatisfied. The right-of-way was still blocked with applicants, who had to be told that there wa« nothing left, nnl that they must go away empty handed. Women who had come a long way. some with babies in their arms, waited In the hope that a second supply might bychance come 'to light, and then drifted away one or two at a tfene. Rcc ignis.Lng the hardness of thise cases, the committee decided that at the next distribution, as far as possible, those who had applied to-day in fain should be served first. Other distributions of food took place this morning. Bread was distributed by the Salvation Army at Prahran, Collingwood. and other places. In accordance with a regular custom on Sunday mornings a free breakfast will be given to-morrow to the workless of North Pitzroy. This breakfast has been carried ont for some years past by a committee of ladies and gentlemen, assisted by Qγ. Delves, Mayor of Fitzroy, and has proved no small boon to the poor of tnat district.