POVERTY IN WELLINGTON.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13479, 19 July 1907, Page 7

POVERTY IN WELLINGTON.

HOW V SCHOOLBOY WAS CLOTHED.

"No poverty!" It was a proud, if doubtful, boast at one time that there was no poverty in New Zealand. Politicians said so; a section of the press repeated the phrase; and wandering scribes from oversea wrote about it. It would be a great and grand boast for any country to say with truth that it harboured no poverty-stricken people. New Zealand cannot do it -as a country, nor (says the Times) can Wellington as a city. The careless, go-as-you-please gentleman may say, "Absurd! Things wore never better." The politician may cry, "The country Avas never so prosperous" ; but that does not affect those •who have been carried on the wheel of circumstances and deposited in a position that commands a close view of the spectre Want. Does the reader Want instances ? Very well— A fortnight ago a lad of not more than nine years of age arrived at a city school in such rags, and in such a filthy condition, that the headmaster's attention had to be called to the fact. This schoolmaster was no prosy pedagogue not one of the old-style masters who would not have hesitated an instant in expelling the lad. He questioned the lad, and discovered things. The next act was to get some hot water — the schools are not yet provided with a hotwater system, yet it appeared at his bidding^— and, there and then, the little fellow was given a bath, the like of which he had probably not had for months, if ever, before. The lad was not permitted to insert his brightened body into the contaminating rags he had worn. The master, without any red-taped delay, went straight into the senior boys' class, told the lads the position, and* asked if they could hejp him. Could they? Rather! Away flew a dozen to their respective homes, and it is on record that not one returned without some article of apparel; and the dirty boy was a new being. The writer could go further into this story— how inquiry was made, how the mother was discovered in a slum, very ill, with other young children to attend to. She couldn't do much. The husband and father was in gaol. To him the comparative luxury of gaol f are ;to her and the children the fight against Want. The raso was looked into accidentally by the St. John's Guild and the Benevolent Trustees—accidentally because it was only traced by the rough-and-ready help given, to the dirty boy at school*. No poverty ? Another case was that of a boy guilty of not attending school. He was hunted up with Mr J. Dineen (the Education Board's Truant Inspector), who discovered that the culprit was the housekeeper in a miserable home. His mother was in the hospital, his father was out looking for work, and he was in charge of two brothers, aged five and two years respectively. The soft hand of charity was again extended in this case. , Mr Dineon, who ranges the Wellington district seeking to know why Tommy and Cissy are not at school, is brought into abrupt contact with many cases of dire necessity- It is not always the children-'s fault ,fchat they are not imbibing- knowlcdget^t the schoolhouse Fancy, in this freezing weather, receiving the excuse recently given in a Hint case that the children had uo clothes to go in ! Then there is the "child-slavery" cause for non-attendance. Mr Dineen protested with one "cocky" in the bogs at the back of Pongftroa about keeping his children from school. It was found that the little ones had to milk so many cows, morning and evening, every day. in all weathers. This and other farm duties kept then from school. When faced with the position, the farmer said he had got along without education, and he did not know what his kids wanted with it. Mr Dineen is of opinion that tiie police do not do their duty towards the run-about children— those in particular who have got beyond their parents' control, and are "running wild." Ho say;that tho police do not deem it their duty to interfere with such youngsters until they have c6m"Ynittod an offence. Why wait for the offence ? An offence is only the natural sequel to non-interference while the children are "on the slide.