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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 97, 27 April 1894, Page 2

A MEi/BouitNE journal Jjas been iuvosti" gating the condition of some of the work" lesß in tbat city, who, owiug to the do" pression, have- boon reduced to abject poverty and misery. The deßoriptions of tho destitution mot with on every hand is very terrible. Iu one locality visited the writer found a network of terraoee of badly-built four-roomed, single-fronted, I oue-atory briok houses, put up by speculative bui ding sooiofcies during the boom times as obeap and desirable homes for working men — "hungry, almost naked children sprawl all over tbo ditty thistle-infest. d yatde, and nothing but squalor is to be encountered on every hand." The renti of these tenements vary from five shillings to nothing. la one of the no-rent tumbledown hovels was a foreigner with his wife and six children. They arc, tho writar siys, "deoenfc respect »blo people. To avoid starvation they have to beg soraps of food. Th?ir only income consists of one shilling per week earned by one of tho boys ' by cleaning the windows of a Brungwiok Bank. 1 " Tho wlltor of tho article Btites that ouo may form ftU idvii ot tho abject poverty of the people when it is stated that keroseno was said by the half-peuoy worth, and that » penny worth of potatoes waß in some pacts visited considered quite nn ox- 1 travagaut order. The accounts of tho terrible misery aod poverty met with on ovory baud roads liko a horrible dream, Here ia an instance :— A family of six was found almoßb famishing. The husband had only dono a few odd doya work during the past two yciirs. The woniin said thab sometimes for two days sho and her ohildren would be quite without food ; and often for four or iivo days at a time they never tasted a cup of t( iii The furniture consisted of one bed. "We walked," Hays tho writer, •• from door to door, street to street, The samo heart-breaking tales—no work, no food, no clothing, 110 furniture, ia some oases not even a bed t'j ]je upon, only the bnre boards. There is one caße of /i woman who lost her husband in a reqcntL shipwreck, She is quite destitute. But for a bit of food obtoinid from the depub she and hor children would be starving, and hot lauded has given her notioe to quit her oottage, aa she oaonot pay reufc. Another wo.mau told us her husband had been dead five weeks, She bad two young children, and was daily expecting a third. She was 1b Gd short of her rent 1 'If I oan't make it up I will be turned out,' she eaid. 'No one will give me work on account of my state of healtb. My furniture consists of three chairs, ooa table, a bed, and a sma'l quantity of bedding, All the olobhcß I possess I fctmd in.' In another house there was a woman and five children, Her husband was away looking for gold. She received a letter, in whioh he fit » ted that he had had nothing to eat bnt potatoes for four days. If he were able oven to cam a shilling he would send it to her. Tha mau didn't care about himself, bub be did feel

1 '' »' that his wife and ohildren should want. . I Jhad to wait some time to answer tho letter, p Ba d tho wife, ' till I could b^g a stomp. I u have received t.vo loaves of bread from the » doibfi to-duy.' «How long will tba^ lneb it you?' Nttmorothan one day, for I have a; five children' 'II ve you any furnit-tre '/' t! ' That ia all,' and sfce pointed to a bed, 'and 2 th re is not a blanket on it, for I have not f or.e."' It ia appalling tD think thHt in a ( , new country thero should bo all this « wrotohedncss suffering and destitution. One oainot help asking the question "■ How are these unfortunate people to live?' Their one ory is not for money but for work. How this sad state of affairs can bo remedied b is puzzling Ili9 greatest minda of the d»y, c and the problem seems to be too diflicult for t any oue to s^lve. t .-•■ — ...» A