A GREYMOUTH PARIAH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2985, 31 May 1911, Page 53

A GREYMOUTH PARIAH.

A PITIFUL CASE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) GREYMOUTH, May 24

In to-night's Star appears the following letter, the statements in which, according to an editorial footnote, have upon inquiries been found to be true : "On the Blaketown bridge yesterday afternoon I came across one of the most ghastly sights of human misery that it has ever been my misfortune to witness. I met an old man who seemed to be wandering aimlessly about. He was the victim of a virulent form of facial cancer in its last stages. As I stood and watched him a bevy of laughing children brushed lightheartedly past him on their way home from school, and it is an undisputed tenet that cancer is contagious. From inquiries I have made I believe he is a quite inoffensive old fellow, who seems to have no relations whatever. No one seems to interest himself on his behalf, and his chief means of subsistence is what he can pick up on the rubbish and garbage heaps of the district. If ever a case needed investigation and prompt action surely this one does. For the sake of this poor pariah himself, not to speak at all of the women and children who live near him, this distressing case ought to be dealt with, and dealt with speedily by those in authority."