THE STREET BOYS OF AUCKLAND. [BY OUR OWN REPORTER,]

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4538, 12 March 1872, Page 3

THE STREET BOYS OF AUCKLAND. [BY OUR OWN REPORTER,]

It has been my business during" the last 10 or 12 days to inquire into the state, moral, social, educational,' and physical, of the street boys of Auckland. I mean the olaas of boys who, as a rue, do not follow any settled pursuit, but who,for the greater number, are dependent upon their industry or their wits for the support of themselves, and, in not a few instances, for assistance rende/ed to. their Darents. ' It has been a melancholy^ wquirf^ but I have "performed my self-imposed tasic faithfully and with no small share of painstaking, that I mjght arrive at the truth as to the condition of our street Arabs. These will in a few years comprise an integral portion of our adult population, and must, if allowed by the State to continue in their present ignorance, and to develop unchecked the nascent deprarity which iofects them, become a moral pestilence to infect with its deadly poison all existing social surroundings. In no instance have I allowed these street gamins to know that I had any special object in eliciting information from them. They told me much of what I wanted to learn, without any thought that what they were telling me would be turned to account, either for or against them. It is certainly not for the latter object that I have troubled myself, but rather that public attention may be drawn to these waifs of our community, that their social condition may be ameliorated, and that they may be rescued from a life of ignorance and crime, and the terrible results which are so certain to follow from one or the other or both. I have not made a calculation, but I do think, without much reckoning, that schools will be found cheaper to support than gaols, and that moral suasion, rightly and earnestly directed, combined with instruction, will be more effectual in the suppression of crime than the triangles, the solitary cell, or the gallows. However, it will be my business to relate facts, when moralists and social reformers can draw their own inferences, and judge what should be the course best to adopt if Bucb a state of crass ignorance is no longer to be permitted to exist. Here are the cases of ten boys in yeara ranging from nine to fourteen. But I may state the first little difficulty I met with was, that, of these ten youths, Bix of them were quite ignorant of their age. I had to guess that as best I might. I will cite the cases as they appear here in the order they came before me : — No. 1 : A boy came into my back yard and |inquired whether I had any porter or alo bottles I would let him collect. I had some, and let him collect them. He told me, in answer to my apparently indifferent and careless inquiries, that he sold the bottles to the brewers and got sometimes sixpence and sometimes eightpence a dozen for them. He did not know exactly how old ho was. Thought ho was ten. Had been to school once for a little while. Knew his letters, but could not read. Could not spell his name. Never had been to church. Went once to a Sunday-school, but did not like standing with the other boya. His father was on a farm up the country, working at harvesting. Did not know where. His mother did washing when she could get it. She got drunk sometimes, and had been taken to the watch-house. Had heard of God, but never heard of Jesus Christ. Did not know who He was. Never was taught to say his prayers. Father was always beating mothe* % when at home. He slept on the floor at night, but did not take off his clothes. Never wore boots. He would not like to wear them. Should like to learn to read and write if there was anyone to teach him. He gathered bottles with his mate. His mate was further down the street : did I want him fetched ?— No. 2 : This was the mate. Could he eat some cold pudding ? lie rather thought so. The mate said he was turned 12, as far as he knowed. He could read a little, but could not write. Used once to go to Sunday-school, but father sold all his clothes and all his mother's clothes, and he nev< r went after. Had not been to school for thiee years. Never heard the Lord's Prayer. Did not know what it meant. Know what a policeman was. The bobbies were always asking what he had got in his sack, and always makiug him show them. Had got a sister ever so old. She went to the theatres of a night. Once she made a man buy a ticket for him to the pit. She always went in the stalls. Didn't want to learn to read and write. That would do for swell boys. Would like to be a sailor. Sailors always got lots to eat, and went everywhere they liked.— What No. 2' 3 sister really was I (lid not care further to inquire. But the boy was a fine open-faced outspoken fellow, with a strong clash of the devil-may-care in him. When he cornea to grow up he will have daiing enough to stick up a whole station of men virile he robs the homestead and cuts a pair of women's throats, if they make the least resistance, or attempt to raise an alarm. — No. 3 made my acquaintance by stopping me, about six o'clock one evening, in a a lane off Queen-street, and asking me what the time was. A civil answer and a penny obtained for me all I wanted to know. He wa9 11 years of age. Could neither read nor write. Had gone to school once, but had forgotten anything he might have learned. Sold papers for another boy, who got them from the Star office. He made from tenpence to a shilling a nighfe. His mother lived close by. Did not recollect his father. Hh mother took in men lodgers. Sometimes he would go home and get something to eat, but his mother beat him, and he would run off to the stables and sleep there all nighb in a box, if there was no horse in it. Had been taken up once, charged with stealing from another boy, but got off. Had never been to church or chapel— no, nor Sunday - school either. Would like to be taught to read. Once one of his mother's lodgers gave him a lot of rum to drink, when hh mother beat "him and he van away to Onehnnga and got on board a steamer, where he stowedhimself away j but he was found out and thrown on shore. —If ever " Evil.be thou my good," was indelibly stamped in a lad's face, it was on that of No. 4. He stopped me one night coming out of the Theatre Royal, and asked me for my pass. I told him I had not got one. He answered with a foul oath— a filthy horrible oath. He aroused my curiosity, and so I told him 1 would try and get him passed in if he would answer me two or three questions, which he promised by saying, "Cut away at it then " This boy told me he was going on 14. He had come doxm from the Thames, where he had been living with his sister and his father. His father was always drunk when he could get the money. He got the money from his sister. He did not know how sister got it. He supposed it was nothing to any one how she got it. He got money sometimes, but [he had got none now. He wished he knew whore to get some. He Wouldu't mind stealing it if he got a chance, because he had as much right as anyone else to get what he could. Knew how to read, but not write. If anyone would start him with twenty bob he would start fish-hawking. He did once, but a big chap won all his money from him at three-np. Never was at church. Hib mother was alive, and livirig with a carpenter chap at Taranaki. — No. 5, 6, and 7 are three brothers, aged eight, ten, * and twelve. They belong to a family of six. Mother and father both alive. The father earns from 255. to 30s. per week. He cannot afford to send any of them to school, and there -is no school where the? can "be taught for nothing. The other three are. 'girls, the youngest three , of the nix. None of them can read or write. The boys go on to the wharf, *~and carry parcels or wheel barrows of firewood^ for their neighbours who cannot afford to~ pay for a load or , half -load. ; These three fart* are sharp and intelligent.-' 'Want h*y\ quickened their wfys; atifl I think they^hiye \ the malting in them otfira^^lws^evePitia, burglars. They/ «% a^degr^r twp i%b^ve t aky. oi the others in appajtratt fy^Pm ™$j!!ogk but are .barefooted »na,in,titw»Bcv J^FEJtv :n.ot - one of -JnoiatPgiiljtaiiE^ttp^BoWAwii fish on the wharf and frbm'off the'boagwHehi

sometimes from her sister in HobMtTown, but ehe drink* it all as soon as she'g^f ifc j both father and mother, drink- together, when they fight ' dreadfully. Recollects when mother rj used 'to go to church before she took to get drank. Father never went to church andFnever sent him to church. His mother used to. t $Jjf can read pretty well and write a little. Would like to go to school. Was in a j grooer's shop, but got turned away because his clothes were so bud, % and because his mother was always drawing his wages in advance. He did not get turned off for stealing. — No. 9 and 10 are two lads appearing to be about 10 and 12 years old respec-' tively, although neither of them can tell their age. They came from Wellington with their father and their mother a long time ago. Both have been dead some time. They take shelter with an old aunt, but have to keep themselvre*^ They used to run for an evening paper, but now get occasional jobs at bottle-washing, at which when employed each earns 2s. a day. Neither can read or write, but would like to learn. Neither has ever been to church, and what clothes they wear their old aunt begs for them. Here then I have briefly, narrated the cases of 10 uncared-for untended youths living in our midst. I cannot of course say how many there may be like them, but I should think certainly not less than from 150 to 200. If the Government would endow an evening school with three or four paid teachers, I think it would not be a hard matter to get these children gathered together, and that with few exceptions they would be found amenable to both advice and instruction. And I thiuk it would be well in some cases could the hand of assistance be stretched out to the most promising &nd best conducted as an incentive to others. Of our girl children of the lower orders 1 know something, but it is for wives, matrons, and mothers to inquire into their cases, and I promise them if they do so they will find abundant material upon which<to feed their philanthropic feelings.