"THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4684, 21 February 1877, Page 3

"THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY.

Concerning the phase which this universal difficulty has assumed in New York, the American correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes: —

In the city of New York we are face to face with the great social question that troubles every civilized community—what to do with our poor. Until ths hard times began three years ago, it was generally felt that the poor deserved their poverty, bocause there was plenty of work to be procured if they were only temperate and industrious. But now, while tht> pauper population of New York has increased tenfold, it is also plain that most of the suffering springs from pure misfortune. We have now 35,000 or 40,000 men un employed in the city of New York, and how they are going to get through the winter, neither they nor any one else can guess. The revival of business, which had been so long hoped for, and which had plainly set in just before the elections, has now faded absolutely away, and until the spring, merchants and manufacturers will sail with as little exposed canvas as possible, for fear that, after all, there may be serious trouble in regard to the Presidency. There is abundant testimony to show that with a settled government we should at once become busy and prosperous. Labour has fallen to prices which are little, if any higher, than in England ; and raw materials and produce of all kinds are, of course, very much cheaper here. In Wail street there is a plethora of money; call loans may be had at 2 and 3 per cent., and three months' loans may be procured at 4or 5 per cent. The stocks of almost everything we manufacture have been gradually contracted until the market, instead of being glutted, is almost bare. Nothing is needed to seb the wheels of industry again moving with their old activity except confidence in the future. But while confidence is being "restored," it now seems highly probable that a percentage of the people of the City of New York will have to starve to death. Whether these poor wretches will die quietly, however, remains to be seen. Rioting is a little more dangerous as an amusement than it is in most cities, because we have few regiments of citizen soldiery, composed of men whose personal interests are dependent upon the preservation of order — such as the seventh and the twenty-second—and of course they treat a mob with pitiless severity. We had our last civic disturbance in 1871, and then about 300 persons were killed by the militia in Jess than 10 minutes. It is needless to add that the mob was utterly vanquished. Bi'fc while, therefore, we have very little apprehensions of bread riots, we may expect this winter an unusual amount of crimes. Already the papers are full of stories of burglaries and highway robberies, and these will probably grow yet more frequent, no matter how severe may be the measures of supression adopted, for they are prompted by the desperation of necessity.