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Lyttelton Times, Volume XIII, Issue 769, 21 March 1860, Page 4

A man whose daily bread depended upon; his daily toil, arid whose exertions to obtain work in the more settled districts of this province had not been "successful, was on this day fortnight travelling, northward to carry his services where they might.be more acceptable. He was not strong in health, and he had little or no money in his jpai'se; but he went along on foot as best-'ne could, trusting that the spirit of hospitality for which our settlers are famed would shelterand forward ;hini on his way ;; confident at any rate that while he! should be within reach of a fellow creature he would not want the necessaries of life. He did as many rich men do—as every one Hiust dor who would :traVel;; through our thinly peopled districts, to visit or help incolonizing: the extremities ofthe settlement—he depended upon the humanity of his fellow-man,.to give him;at least food and shelter, necessaries which even with money he could not buy. The poor

man knew thaf those to whom he;would, apply were well-to-do, .men by, whom a meal given to a stranger could not be felt as a loss. ■■ As he went along, his poor and enfeebled condition was noticed by every one who saw him -keepers of houses where food and shelter are sold to the rest of the world for money as a business, allowed this popr.man to eat and drink and go free on bisway refreshed; his iourney was eased by a lift now and then, in a dray ,• and none refused a sick and weary fellow creature what help lay in, their ; but one.—That one was Mr. Moore, of Orlenmark. , ■ V Mr. Moore of Glerimark is the possessor oi sixty thousand acres of land, «In; making_so large a purchase it seems to have been his object, besides the growth of wool, to keep as far removed from him as possible the society and the sympathies of his fellow creatures. Inside his boundary humanity has no rights: he has bought them tip with the freehold; at so much an acre. -So, ; when a man fatigued sickly and; hungry.came to him on a wet bitter night and prayed first for work and then for shelter; Mr r G. H. Moore felt that he was exercising an undeniable right in uttering1 a. blank refusal and shutting his door upon him. The door was shut—-and not -only .the master's door but: the servants', by the. master's repeated command; the man was left outside.; in the bitter : night • and whether from hunger^ or from having lost himself in the darkness, or from the effects of the stormy or from all together acting- upon a diseased frame to the injury of the mind-—the proximate cause.cannot now be told—he. took the means of speedy death which lay within his grasp, and killed "himself but a mile away from the food and shelter which he had failed to obtain. ' - ; ;: ; /

Shame—a thousand times shame—to the individual who sent from his door into the waste a famished footsore,mah, without a chance of reaching shelter or a prospect of a bit to eat, ;tiir-iinorning:-!V.::What. man with a spark of feeling 1 would,serve a dog* so? Shame to him,even though no .lasting" consequences might be the result of his inhuman deed! j But what did Mi*. Gf. H. Moore do1 when he found.what had really happened? ■ Surely he repented his act bittei'ly.-r-Npt he!, ; | .On-Friday morning: his . shepherd came running to him, in: such, a hurry that .Mr. Moore thought he had lost'the dogs; and he hastened to help him. But the shepherd said that he had found a man lying deadjj; and Mr; Moore did nothing-—-for. a to Kaiapoi by S 'bulloclc dray does not deserve to be called ..anything.: - When; a constable came up on Sunday he found the body of.the ! unfortunate man lying where it had fallen, exposed to sun and weather, not a human hand having been moved to rescue the Temairis of humanity from being literally a prey to the beast of the field and the. bird of the air. Nor was common Help in the performance of the constable's .official duties forthcoming. What indeed could the inhuman rich man care about the miserable body, who had but no.w sent the soul from his presence to bear witness of his barbarities in the pre-' ejsence of the Maker of them both. ;. : f When Mr. Moore is summoned to answer, at the inquest,; he swears that the man who^ died was drunk. The evidence of all others who met the poor fellow proves that he neither 1 ; was nor could be drunk. Mr.; Moore had' formed an opinion that the mail was an| impostor: and by that "opinion"...of'vhis^j own he .thought; himself justified in. sufifering;J the other to starve. . He gave n° help to the| constable, for one reason—because it was the^ Sabbath. , Mean, hard-hearted^ barbarous^ blasphemous man ! Possibly he who so yene/ rates the Holy Day of Rest may know'whai;. is promised to those; who see the hungry, aridf feed them not; the naked, and clothe them not; strangers, and take them not in. : S,

But we-haye not' to do with this view.ofthe; subject, further than to express our; loathing! at religion being made an excuse for' waht^of charity. We cannot say with certainty'thai Mr. Moore's offence is within the letter of thl: law; perhaps: it -may be.'.:' "But-this-we ';<&( know—that, after this, no hand of a Christiaii . nian should clasp that of Mr. Moore till lie hap done penance for his deep crime agaujjst?4me laws of God and.man. ■; .;;.■ : ■-■■/.: ' ■ \y -" ' ';■■•■-• •'■ ■• ■■■ ■ •-'- -• ■-■■"■ ■■•• ' ■'■:■■■>