WELLINGTON'S HUNGRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18173, 19 August 1922, Page 10

WELLINGTON'S HUNGRY.

THE DAILY FOOD QUEUE. FILLING THE EMPTY CUPBOABD. If there are any in doubt as to jteople being hard pressed for food at the present time, their doubt* ■would have been dispelled by a visit to the cellar of the Town Hall on Wednesday afternoon,, saye a Wellington paper. There, in a murky half-light, extending along an almost I dark corridor 10ft. below the level of the street, was a roughly-formed queue. It was, perhaps, a mercy to those in the food-line —men, women, and children—that the waiting place was wrapped in gloom. Some of them would probably never have stood in the line had they to face the full light of day, for there are those who would sooner starve than stifle their pride. Most of the men—some of them strong able-bodied fellows—had the appearance of waterside workers, and many of them so described themselves. "Work on the wharf had been short for a good 12 months, and things did not seem to be improving." That was the burden of their cry, and with an empty cupboard and a wife and children to feed, what were they to do? i Perhaps the most pathetic units in the long and hungry line were the children. Many of them have been sharpened and made "wise" by the desperate plight of their crowded homes, and do their best to get full rations for the family. To bjj assured that there is need for further donations, one has only to watch the speed at which the food vanishes. It is the necessities that are most in demand —tea, sugar, milk coupons, bread, meat, flour, rice, arid potatoes—and heaps of them are needed for the genuinely hungry people in Wellington to-day.