The Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1895. To-Day.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5281, 11 June 1895, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1895. To-Day.

I» "the Midland inuddk" is doing nothing else, it is inciting people in various centres o£ interest to devise strange contentions. *The Wellington Post Bees in the latest phase of the situation only a determination on the part of the Government to " get the Midland railway into its own hands, in order to use its construction as a political engine." It is a carious sort cf imagining that contemplates the use of a railway as an " engine." But the Post seems anxious to prove itself an adept in the art of mixed metaphor, for it goes on to say that the idea is to use the railway as a powerful "lever" to move political forces in favour of a new borrowing policy. At Greymouth we find a new set of ideas. There a section of the community regards the seizure as "a put-up job," the theory expresßed being that the Company has been "bedevilled" for the past year or two, and, being unable to "raise the needful" in London, has connived at the seizure in order to gel the line finished by the Government at a cheaper rate. The Colonial Treasurer is credited with having ''arranged the affair- at Home." Thia is distinctly ingenious, for it at one stroke clears up " the Midland muddle," and discloses the " important and delicate misBion" with which Mr Ward Was charged. It may be objected that the Grejmouth folk do not display any high conception of political morality, but in this regard they are immeasurably superior to the Wellington Post, which iB " like one in whom all evil fancies seem to cling like serpents' eggs together."

Amongst the innumerable proposals that have been formulated in connection with the settlement of the land, there is one devised by a Wellington resident that desema to be enshrined, if only on account of its novelty. Mr R. Ot. Kuight, who is very much a father, and who no doubt has pondered much over the question, " What shall we do with our boys ? " baa published the following doublebarrelled proposal :—" That R. G. Knight and any other father of twelve children receive a grant of one hundred acres of land to use and hold until the twelfth, child is twenty - one yeara of age, when it shall be transferred to the twelfth child for his nee and benefit, and that of his heirs after him ; and that every other child born after the twelfth receive a grant of one hundred acres likewise." Mr Knight's brilliant idea is that such a scheme as this would also help in a solution of the problem, "Why men do not marry ; " that the prospect of a land grant on the arrival of the twelfth olive branch would forthwith produce a surging of bachelors into the matrimonial market. But it is very much more probable that Mr Knight's spectacles would not suit the ordinary vision.

It is well that we should now and again turn our attention to the conditions under which the Dooror classes live in

other parts of the Empire, bo that we may duly appreciate the advantages enjoyed in New Zealand, and that we may become more resolute in the determination to shut out soma of the gross evils that are so many black blots on our boasted civilisation. The startling fact is presented, among a number of others ascertained by the party of progress in the London County Council, that there are in the Metropolis nearly 400,000 persona living in oneroomed homes ; that there are more than 800,000 in the over-crowded condition of two or more to a room, and that there are more than 30,000 men and women who find themselves every night without any other abode than the common lodginghouse or the casual ward. Bub it is when more detailed statements are presented that the conditions of lower-strata life in London can be better understood, and at the present time there are many earnest workers, anxious to better the existing state of things, who have a painfully accurate knowledge of their special loonHties. Among these, the Eev G. H. Veazey, of the St Martin's Mission in the Woolwich district, stands out prominently.

Undkb the care of this one worker there are 450 families, numbering in all 1800 persona, the whole of whom are " stowed " away in 200 houses; and the dwellings are, without exception, of an absolutely insanitary and unhealthy character. Of the 450 families, no fewer than 106 have to live with only one room for each family —a whole family living, eating and sleeping in one room ! And such a room ! "The houses are constructed on the worst possible principle. They are built back to back, so that there ia no through draught of air, and there is very little

light. One block of bix houses contains thirty-two occupied rooms, and ia inhabited j by twenty-three families, or seventy- seven j persona. Another block of fifteen hoasea j forms a human rabbit warren for one hun* | dred and seventy-one sonls, all herded ! together like the little f ar-coated vormin, I but not under such healthy conditions. i a i a third set of three houses there ia an j average of between two and three peraons ; living, aleeping. and, in some cases ! working in every room, and of these rooma ' five are underground cellars." As a matter of fact, many chapters might be written about cellar life in London — cellars for which at the very least two Bhillinga a week ia demanded by the rapacious landlords, who wax fat on the herded misery.

Whit, in auch circumstances, must be the moral condition of the dwellers? "Is it a matter for surprise," asks one cbaoiver, "that drunkenness, vice and; dirt abonnd ?" And he proceeds to show, in language the very moderation of which • brings out the truth more startingly clear, ! what really happene. There is, for theae \ people, absolutely no hopa in their narrow \ horizon. In order to get what food they j have and pay their rent they have to do a i certain spell of work of come, kind or ; other. They go back to their dens at night to lie down like wild beasts in their .' dirt and misery or to take shelter from the ' cold or rain. The atmospheric conditions ' under which they live ate of the moat un- j healthy kind. Ventilation is shut out • of the rooms to keep them warm. Fever and vermin abound. The man, when he returns from his work, sees nothing but squalor and misery \ day after day. Children . grow up ' accustomed to drunken brawls, to dirt, j neglect and foul language. The most ■ cheerful spot in the neighbourhood, with its blazing lights, warm atmosphere and cheery surroundings is the gin palace. : Small wonder that the human wretches go • there, for they can not only obtain light i and warmth, but they can get that which ] temporarily, at least, drowns their sorrows, < and makes them forget their care 3. Men j and women who can cheerfully carry on nrsaion work among such people and amid such surroundings, have more true heroism ; in them than the bravest warrior that ever ' existed. j