SLUMS OF LONDON

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 36, 10 January 1884, Page 2

SLUMS OF LONDON

"* (Saturday Kctiew,) The slums of London are mere nests of crime, and are capable of becoming centres of cholera. Some persons have even been heard to wish for a visit from cholera (which this summer, has been near enough) that* ihe ' 'public might, be stirred to action. Even if; -without actual pestilence the position is to the last degree shameful and dan-; gerou's. It is the duty qf everyone) who realises the facts ne^er- to cease| agitating (as without agitation nothing! can be' doiie) till the 1 condemned 'liouWW are swept away, and till ihe uncondemned houses are condemned. Even then- the task of reforming J jondon poverty is only beginning. The poor themselves, it appears, object highly to State-aided emigration. They prefer to linger at the docks or among the de caying rabbits and the match boxes m the hope that something vaguely magnificent will be done for them at home. We >can ; wonder that they have not the heart or pluck to emigrate as the middle places do when they find Englaud too small for Ibeni ? Heart and pluck The^nsaiirne^er "acquire while their homes are poisonous, and while their education involves pre cocious acquaintance T with recondite immorality. In the-m&ntime, and before the question becomes a party question', > private eriterprisje 'is' {doTiig what it can with top large a problem. -And this private enterprise, whatever form it takes, whether that of a ■" Society for the Protection of£odgers" or npc, deserves support and approval. Lodgers may possibly be enabled to "strike " against the heartless speculators who live on them, and Cpger's Beats may be left to Him desolate. ■•"'•'■■ ;'