OLD COOK IN TEARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 226, 24 September 1929, Page 8

OLD COOK IN TEARS.

UNABLE TO 'OBTAIN -WORK. IMPRISONED FOR VAGRANCY. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WAIHI, this day. With tears in his eyes, Frederick Becker, aged 63, a native of Sweden, charged at the Police Court to-day with vagrancy, told the justices that he was a station cook, and had worked for all the prominent sheep breeders in the Hawke's Bay district. He had had a struggle in Auckland to keep out of the doss-house, and he had worked in gardens. He had charged 1/ per hour if a woman was poor, but where "visible means" were apparent he charged 1/6.

He described some young men at the doss-house as lazy.

He said he was' willing to work, but had been turned down, and pleaded that, after a man had failed to obtain work, it was not wrong to ask for a few shillings.

Sergeant Calwell said Becker had been in Waihi a few days. His statement was probably correct, though he had drink. He (the sergeant) would make an endeavour to procure him a few days' work to help him on his way. The Bench ordered that Becker be detained for seven days, so that he might receive proper attention.