PALACES AND PAUPERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10659, 12 May 1906, Page 6 (Supplement)

PALACES AND PAUPERS

Mr F. _, A. Mackenzie has contributed four articles on Loudon workhouses to the Daily Mail, which we arc not surprised to .learn have caused considerable stir. The palatial style m which indoor relief is administered • by the London. Guardians is simply staggering. Paupers aro now lodged m palaces. "The old simple style of workhouses," wriie_ Mr Mackenzie, "has given place to elaborate stonefaccd structure-, with wide carnage drives, and at times with grent lawlis and shrubberies around their lofty apartmeuts." Great buildings mean* corresponding contractors' bills. In St. Olave's a new workhouse. cost close upon £300 for each inmate, or enough to Iwmc six or eight people m two cottages such as tlioye shown m last year's exhibition. "How many working' men ratepayers," ask« Mr Mackenzie, "live iv a house costing . . £1800 for a family of six?" It is only fair to say that the guardians seem to have got value for their money The baths are of porcelain. Tlie handbasins are 'fitted with hot and cold, water pipes. The floors ure of parquetry. Tli e kitchens are lined with white tiles. The kiccliou ranges are heated by steam and the ovens by gas. The wards are warmed by hot water, with the addition of open fireplaces for the sake of cheerfulness and ventilation. Naturally, when the paupers are lodged on this scale the rooms m which the guardians transact business are not forgotten. Consequently wo are not surprised to learn that m one ' workhouse the Board-room chairs cost from £4. 17s to £9 10s each. A guardian is too precious an article to have his portly person supported by anything less costly than mahogany and Spanish leather. In' short, from first to last the pauper is treated a6 an Imperial functionary, who. must be kept m such a way as to reflect glory on the ratepayers who have to feed this monstrous cuckuo. It is no matter for astonisliment that workhouses built m, this fashion are found highly attractive. Mere external splendor might be Masted on the class by which they arc chiefly tilled. But the food supply is on a corresponding scale. At the Poplar Workhouse the contracts are for the supply of. the best English wether mutton, and for the prime cuts of bacon of the most esteemed brands. There — and we dare say that m this respect other London workhouses are not behind Poplar — no pauper is insulted by being asked to eat Australian mutton or New Zealand lamb, or to put lip with any part of the pig save that which furnishes those "streaky l^ rashers so dear to connoisseurs. It is by these means that the London Guardians secure the presence m their workhouses of "over 5000 healthy men and women m the prime of life, a large proportion of whom are living m comparative idleness, to the. permanent destruction of . their power or will to work." And this does not include the casuals. The really wonderful thing is that, under the system which the guardians of. the poor m London have set up, and which the Local Government Board has hitherto, wheth,er from fear of .unpopularity or from easy good nature,' been content to tolerate, any man or woman who has not ample private means should prefer paying rates to living on them.

The Arnauds leave three daughters, the eldest aged eight. Arnaud was the cashier of the French Estates Company. Out of 300,000 newspapers compressed by hydraulic machinery, an Austrian has constructed a yacht 16ft long. Every part, including the masts and sails, is of paper. < In the electric installation on the liner AHnerikti six miles of main cables, forty-eight-miles of branch 'wire, and twentyseven miles of bell nntLtclcphone \viremaking m all a.'total\lf seventy-nine miles— are employed, sayl iha J^UMTO