NOT ENOUGH PAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 609, 11 March 1929, Page 11

NOT ENOUGH PAY

VAGRANTS COMPLAIN PARTICULAR ABOUT WORK Refusal to work fc4* what they called ’’starvation wages'' resulted in the appearance of two vagrants in the Police Court dock this morning. Conditions are bad in the country, according to Charles Franks. Frank>. formerly an hotelkeeper, aged 50. admitted that he was idle and without .my means of support, but denied that ho was disorderly. Constables said that they had seen the man loitering about the street for more than a month. W hen arrested at 1.15 in the morninv asleep on a seat in Albert Bark, he had admitted that he had no money, no home and nowhere to go. He had done no work for rive weeks and v .is Jiving on wluit people gave him. Franks was asked whether he would go to the Salvation Arms Home until he found work. “I want a living wage,” he cried. "Work in the country for 15s or .£ 1 a week, going 16 hours a day. is no good. I want a leg up.” Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M.: It will be hard to do anything with him as I see that ho has had convictions for this offence nearly every year since 11)23. 1 don’t think he likes work much. Franks was convicted and ordered to com© up for sentence within 14 days. "You need not come if you are away working." was the magistrate's parting remark. QUARRELLED WITH COOK "A quarrel with the cook" was given by Georg© Gould as his reason for leaving the Salvation Army Home. Gould, a fireman aged 39, pleading not guilty on a charge of vagrancy, was described by the constable wh<* arrested him as a "dry-land sailor." He was hanigng about One Tree Hi!!, sleeping in the reserve and cadging food from inmates of the Auckland Inti rmary. The man was not satisfied with the Salvation Army Home, where he had been given food, clothing, a bed and a few shillings a. week pocket money in return for a little work. Major Holmes <Salvation Army): Why did you leave our home? Gould: I couldn’t get on with the cook. Anyway I would rather starve in the gutter than work for a few pence a week. Chief-Detective Hammond said that Gouid would make no effort to get on a ship. He had a wife and family in England, but was making no effort to maintain them. _ Gould refused to avail himself or the officer’s invitation to return t° th» home and was sentenced to three months* imprisonment.