VAGRANTS' HAPPY HOME DISCOVERED ON THORNDONQUAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 57, 9 March 1915, Page 2

VAGRANTS' HAPPY HOME DISCOVERED ON THORNDONQUAY.

EARLY MORNING VISIT BY POLICE. Afc an early hour this morning — between 2 and 3 o'clock — the police rudely broke up a happy home on Thorndonquay. "In consequence of what they had been told" (that is the police way of putting it) Sergeant Wade and Constables Chapman, and Edwards set out from Lambton-quay at 2 o'clock this morning on an errand which had surprisingly satisfactory results. Their quest led them to a vacant railway section on Thomdon-quay,. which is overgrown by fennel reaching a height of at least 7ft or Bft. They made a thorough search of the property and discovered — well, practically a boarding-house for vagrants. There were- well-worn passages, and iere and there clearings which served a* rooms to men in a state of impecupioeity. The "rooms" were so arranged that it was evident that they were meant to be permanent — so long as the police permitted it: There were beds made of rags and old clothes, besides some new clothes, which, it is asserted, bear a strong resemblance to articles reported missing from clothes-lines in the vicinity. Apparently the apartments had been occupied for some weeks at least, and probably for some months. Various utensils were lying about. In four of the "rooms" the police fonnd aa occupant At, no gue6t&* book was kept, the officers of the law had to ascertain the names of the lodgers themselves, and these proved to be Thomas Bush, William Plymouth Brown, George Carr, and John Brodrick, who were very soon lodged in a place where they had a roof over their heads. They had scarcely any money^on them when arrested — not more than one shilling between them. They all appeared before Mr. D. G. A. Cooper, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court to-day, together with. Christian Olsen, who was found sleeping in an enclosed yard belonging to the Harbour Board in the same vicinity. They were a disreputable looking lot, a.nd, according to the police, quite unused to hard toil. Inspector Hendrey asserted that this particular class of vagrant spent all the money he had in hotels. Without passing any comment his Worship imposed a * sentence of On© month's haid labour in each case.