Destitution in England.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 849, 8 June 1888, Page 5

Destitution in England.

[From the London Times.J

I write from a large and populous rural parish, in which from special causes, into which I need not nosv enter, the prevailing depression is felt with peculiar severity. There are around me many farm laborers, decent, steady men, able and willing to do a good day’s work, who during this long winter have had no work to do, and would have starved unless I) aided by a few generous friends, had been often able to help them to have a bit of fire in their grate and a loaf of bread on their table.

The general wage for the few men whom the farmers are able to employ is 9s the week, deduction from this being made for the days (very frequent, alas 1) and portions of days during which work cannot be done on this clay soil. Two strong youths, aged eighteen, whom I am j ust helping to emigrate, have been earning, one, 5s per week and the other 4s 6d, deductions from these sums being also made for all time lost through the badness of weather. As the mother of one of these lads said to me of his earnings, ‘ It is not enough to fiud him in food, let alone clothes.’

A large proportion of these people are already deeply in debt to the'little tradesmen of the place, and are sinking fa3t into utter despair. In many a village the parson, himself generally with sadly diminished means, is laboring wearily to assist the most grievous cases among his still poorer neighbors. Yonrs, obediently, James A. Bonser. Shillington Vicarage, BeJs, April 4, 18S8.