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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9065, 28 May 1888, Page 4

On Friday last two old men were sent to gaol each for three months' imprisonment with hard labour for having no home and no food. The one old man had to be helped into the dock by the police, being inoapable of walking unaided because of his age and feebleness. The other had been found sleeping in a closet, the nights being too cold and wet for him to sleep on a doorstep or under the trees in the Domain. Although we euphemistically say that poverty is no crime, these two old castaways of society have done no other, and by the offence of having no home to sleep in they became amenable to the law and were sent to gaol. We do not say that it was not in mercy and in kindness the magistrate sent them thither, and even the addition of hard labour was only to get them proper food. But all the same, this is an incident that is a shame to a Christian community, and one circumstanced as we are. For such age and poverty—" ill-matched pair "—not only nas society made provision, but a benevolent man, after denying himself a thousand comforts in life, left some twelve thousand pounds to give relief to such aged and suffering poor as these.

but through the coldblooded ', indifference of the adSSrtSS**! the public charity, and of tS^Lg benefaction there is no place into SK these two destitute men could k> ' ceived, and in sheer mercy thpi which is usually the minister of seveS* , had to step in to save these m *n* 7 ' death. Wretched as the BefiS/K there was no room in them fo?th e 2! while for a lone time past ' at the Charitable Aid Board h£X* successfully resisting the cry of hum 1 ity for the erection of a suitable buffi* mg capable of sheltering the destitute'. ana the funds that were given for tk , aged and the poor by a benevolent X man have been selfishly diverted fr their merciful intention to spare tk* pockets of the well-to-do We aware that steps are now in prosrrT 8 which will probably lead to that S being supplied, but that such a statenf things should have continued so lon while ample provision had been mat for supplying accommodation for th aged and destitute, and that at th time of day, and in a city so advanced the aged poor should be sent to eani for their poverty and destitution, shame to Auckland. '