A STRANGE ADVENTURE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue 4254, 3 July 1895, Page 5

A STRANGE ADVENTURE.

Aboub half-past nine o'clock on Sunday night two boys, brothers, named Andrews, aged respectively thirteen and a-balf and eleven years of age, were brought to the Christchurch police station by a lady who found them in the Catholic Pro-Cathedral, Barbadocs street. They stated that they had come from Rakaia ; that their father, a laborer, had died eight or nine months ago ; and that their stepmother had sent them away on Saturday morning, telling them to look for work, as she was unable to keep them. They said that they knew she had no money, and that there was no food in the houae when they left. She had, they stated, tried to earn money by taking in washing, but had not been able to get much to do. The two little fellows stated that they had called in at all the farms on the road from their cottage to Christchurch, a distance, they thought, of about twenty -six miles, and had been unable to get work, but had a couple of meals given to them on Saturday. On the night of that day they slept in a haystack ; and on Sunday they tramped into Christchurch, which they reached about noon. They called in at several places during the morning, and tried to obtain work, but did not ask for food, and consequently got nothing to eat all day. After reaching town they walked about the streets for some hours, and then sat down to rest on the Madras street footbridge over the railway. Soon afterwards they went towards the Pro-Cathedral, and some boys going there took the young wanderers in with them. They remained till the close of the service, and as they were sheltering themselves from the rain in the porch a lady saw them, and asked them what they were doing there. On hearing their story she took them to the police station, where she offered to find them some tood if they could not be accommodated. The watchhouse keeper, Constable Bridgman, took them to the kitchen, where they were given a good meal, and they were afterwards made as comfortable as possible for the night pending the inquiries which would be made next day. They are small but healthy-looking and intelligent youngsters, in good condition, and each wearing a tolerably good suit of clothes and boots, but they had no overcoats, and said that they suffered a good deal from the cold on their tramp. It is conjectured that they misunderstood the directions given them by their stepmother, who, it appears, had not been unkind to them, and who, probably, did not intend them to undertake anything like a tramp into Christchurch. — ' Lyttelton Times.'