LONDON'S HUMAN WRECKAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 194, 15 August 1907, Page 3

LONDON'S HUMAN WRECKAGE.

A lecture was delivered to a large audience in "the Foresters* Hall, Devonport, last evening, by Mr. W. J. Napier, on "London's Human Wreckage." The speaker described his "experiences during a recent visit..to England, and his investigations in the East End of London, and especially as to the noble philanthropic work done by the Salvation Army and the Little Sisters of the Poor. "Multitudes," said Mr. Napier, "are flourishing in the horrible, quagmire of hopeless I destitution." There were 3,000,000 people in Great Britain in misery; 190,000 were in the workhouses; 965.000 were outdoor paupers or starring, and 100.000 "out of works." In London alone there were in workhouses, asylums, hospitals, starving, or on the verge of starvation, 993,000 human beings.

The "elevators" of the Salvation Army "were described, where the human flotsam and jetsam are taken in hand and gradu;aily uplifted. An account was given of I the "shelters" in Blackfriars and Petti-coat-lane, and at Bermondsey, where supper, hot bath, bed, and breakfast were supplied by the Salvation Army for foarpence.

Mr. Napier said General Booth, was the only man who had attempted to cope with the stupendous misery on proper business lines, and he characterised the "General" -as the "greatest organising genius that had ever lived." The expense to the State of even mitigating the destitution was enormous, and was largely wasted. The Poor Law cost £11,000,000, public charities £10,000.000, private charities, £7,000,000, and police, etc., £500,000. The work could be better done by the Salvation Army for onethird of the money. The speaker said England wanted all her human material ; and could afford to waste none. Every child born should be properly fed, housed and clothed, and grow up fit to defend the Empire. They had only 55,000,000 white people in the Empire, and they could not hold it unless they put their j house iv order. German public men had told him that Germany would not be content to leave Great Britain her immense territories in temperate climes. There were nearly 100,000,000 Germans in Germany and Austria —a compact, well fed, and well-disciplined people. The solution of the problem in London was the public employment of the destitute, and State farms in England, and farm coionies in South Africa and the other colonies. Under proper organisation the expense to the State could be cut down by half. Land should be compulsorily taken, by the London County Council, houses built, baths constructed, and electric tramways built to take the masses away from the slums. The "canker" must be removed from the Empire's heart, or the Empire would fall. The overcrowding in other large British cities was also described. In EdinburgU out of a total of 71,504 families, 34,651 families lived in one or two miserable rooms. In Glasgow the overcrowded constituted 74 per cent of the population. Sir Oliver Ix>dge had said the majority of the overcrowded v/ent back in the scale of civilisation to a dangerout extent. Mr. Napier concluded with an eloquent peroration urging New Zeaianders to prevent arising here the conditions that brought about the dire results he had described, and to make New Zealand an object lesson to the world. On the motion of Mr. F. G. Ewington the lecturer was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.