THE “DOWN AND OUTS.”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5147, 4 July 1927, Page 3

THE “DOWN AND OUTS.”

CONDITIONS IN SYDNEY DOMAIN. A PRESS REPORTER’S TOUR. There are degrees of comfort even in the Domain. A Press representative who went the rounds of the sleeping-out quarters of the destitute in company with a Salvation Army officer found a man in grey flannel pyjamas crawling into the most luxurious bed in the Domain. It consisted of layers of newspaper, blankets, and a number o>f topcoats. This aristocrat among the “dossers” had also got .away from the “common herd,” who generally sleep under the hanging rocks fronting Farm Cove. He selected a secluded spot on the Woolloomooloo Bay side where, from the shelter of the overhanging rock, he could greet the morning sun. When offered a ticket which would entitle him to a bed for the night and breakfast at the Salvation Army refuge in Foster Street he scornfully refused. He works on his own account, he said, and the Domain does him to sleep in. Permanent lodgers in th? Domain generally have little more than a liberal supply of paper for bed and covering. They bind their feet, legs, arms, and body in paper, tie it on with string, and then, if they are lucky, huddle under an old coat. Sleeping in the Domain, they ,do not want Mr Mares to tell them how cold it was during the night. The early morning hours, they say, are the worst, and if there is a. wind it is impossible to keep warm oven under the papers. For this reason some of the lodgers keep late hours. They are generally well wrapped up and settled down on their paper beds by 9 o’clock, so as to get as much sleep as possible before the temperature falls to its lowest. What time do they get up ? “Well, there is such a thing as sleeping out and sleeping in. at the same time,” said one bewhiskered individual of 64, who had not lost his sense of humour. “But that is only when the weather is warm and there is no. wind.” A new arrival was stretched out oa a seat. His only covering was the old suit of clothes he- wore. For a pillow he had a paper folded and spread on a stone. His preparation for “bed” was simply to take off his boots. He soon put them on and disappeared when the Army officer gave- him a ticket for the Foster Street shelter. Generally the men are no-t very willing to move once, they have settled down for the night, but they eagerly accept a ticket for breakfast. WORKED FOR CHINESE. Most of the Domain “dossers” are men over 40. They all tell.a sto’ry pf unemployment and lost opportunities. One man said he had been employed as a cook’s assistant, and had been thrown out of work when the recent award was made for boardinghouse employees; Another mqn said his only' employment was to carry baskets of vegetables for a Chinese hawlrer. Fpr carrying the baskets the man got 3s a day. Meals cost him 4d each a.t the Salvaion Army refuge, and when in an extravagant mood he gets a bed at the same place for Bd. Once or twice a week officeti-is/ of the Army make ;> r&und of the Domain spying out the destitute with an electric torch. Every man is offered a bed for the night and breakfast the following morning if he cares to accept it. Last year a man was found sleeping out with his wife and children, but so fqr no similar case has been met with this year.