MANSION FOR TRAMPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

MANSION FOR TRAMPS.

SOCIAL REFORMER'S SCHEME.

"DOWN-AND-OUTS" AS GUESTS

Formerly the mansion of Sir Milton Sharp, Bart., chairman of the Bradford Dyers' Association, Spring House, Heckmondwike, near Bradford, is now a home for tramps. The change was brought about by Mr. J. T. Gibbons, a prominent social reformer in the North of England, who recently described the result of his experiment at a meeting called by Sir John Simon, Lord Henry Bentinck, and Mr. George Lansbury, at the House of Commons, to consider changes in the vagrancy laws. lo a Daily Chronicle representative whom ho showed round the mansion and grounds Mr. Gibbons said:—"l had never been satisfied whether the greater number of men on the road were actually genuine and just victims of circumstances, or whether they were, in the main, ne'er-do-weels. To find out I took this house as my own home, went to local casual wards, selected about 18 men, and brought them back here, determined to treat them as my own guests. "There is nothing institutional about Spring House. Instead of inviting my friends to come and play golf and tennis with me, I invite these men in order to discover the real causes of vagrancy, and also to give them a chance to make good. "I have now had nearly 100 men in the : house, and I am quite satisfied that 60 per cent, at least of the post-war tramps on the road are victims of circumstances. They come here, stay for as long as tv. 0 or three months, attend to the work of the house and garden, and we help them by collecting references, preparing their application for work, and help them to get to their destination." The house is a beautiful structure ox Georgian type, standing in fine gardens, and set well back from the road. It is not luxuriously furnished, but it is comfortable. There is a bright dining-room, an inviting lounge, a recreation room and a quiet little private chapel where most oi the guests go to services of their own free will. The sleeping accommodation is clean, comfortable and spacious. "I cannot now continue the work on its present scale entirely on my own financial responsibility," Mr. Gibbons said, and the Wayfarers' Benevolent Association has been formed to support it, with Sybil Lady Eden as president." People in all parts of tliG country are taking an interest in Spring House, and several of the rooms of the mansion have been furnished and are, in part, maintained as memorials. One perpetuates the name of Donald Hankey who wrote A Student in Arms," and another_ that of Mr. Eustace Firth, brother of Sir Algernon Firth, the carpet manufacturer and a former president of the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom*