THE CITY MISSION AND HOMELESS MEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 114, 17 May 1927, Page 6

THE CITY MISSION AND HOMELESS MEN.

I was very much impressed bv the remark* • of Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., concerning the larn number of vagrants who are constantly beinV arrested for sleeping out. The magistrate knows as well as we do ihat manv of thess chaps are not criminals, but merely "the unfor- : tunates of life. In, say, seven cases out of ten, they have merely been left behind ia i life s race and have not perhaps had the opportu- " nities for making good which others have bat It is rather hard that they should be brought before the Court if they have done no wrong; Mr. Hunt expressed the opinion that there should be some shed or "doss-house" near th» waterfront where they could be housed *t> least during the winter months. Through the courtesy of the Auckland Drug Company I ■ have been able to acquire the temporary use ' of some premises in lower Federal Street, and, if the public will support the measure, lam » confident that not a man need sleep in tha Domain or anywhere else out of doors. Wa cannot offer more than a shakedown, perhaps on straw for a start, but within a week or "' two after opening (which should take place ia " ? a few days) we hope to put on at least one J meal and provide a fairly comfortable bed for upwards of sixty men. The Mission workers ? are all working at very high pressure just ' now, as the following carefully certified figures ! will show. During the last week we haw : had 341 interviews at headquarters, issued 169, food orders, given out 109 parcels of clothes, < and given just over 1000 soup meals in our Bjg Sisters' Soup Kitchen. Our funds are thus taxed to the uttermost, and it is only through a big faith in the Auckland public that I have dared to assume the responsibility of starting a resthouse. May I make an appeal through ' you to buy blankets, etc, and also for gifts of second-hand blankets and mattresses? Wa i will gladly collect gifts of any kind in our delivery van. JASPER CALDER, City Missioner.