"TOO AWFUL FOR WORDS."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 955, 24 October 1910, Page 7

"TOO AWFUL FOR WORDS."

: UFE vIN : BACItBLOCKS i. RAILWAY ; V:;V;:;^.P;:: : ;•CAMPS:; '.^y .■;,;:.;. :"-'.r.- ; ;'-'-;; October 22. " revealing,:-searchlight; .of /the thoroughly thrown: .■upon the; lives of men in some of the •.railway cooperative .camps by : the Rev, : . G.'C., Cruickshank-at,the.mission' meet-.' :'.'ing~;in--Mnnectidi.;mth-;vtlie"-. ; 'Anglioaii,- ■ :Synod;iast night;, .As a -worker in. some of .the; English ■ slums, ;.'■ he ;. said,;, he -thought'he'had'-;'seeh- : ''s6me: j life':that >was .hefty," ;i as: he..phrased it. ; ■3ii;;the,.:railway, ; camps-he. knew; there', were some Very 1 - fine,men j : and ho would never /characterise- a. .wholer. community pf men by one/term; but,on,the whole joe-had never,seen-lives sq : degraded as' ine had seen .in the back-blocks cp--operative railway camps in; New Zea- : aan<L..\lt was/top.'awful, for:.words.;.The pnen: hi. '.these -; camps could "knock -but - "10s.;: or 155.: a .day with ease.. There was •nothing,'to,'stop'; them drinking,' ,for: they khew'they, could be' sure ; of ahree meals a day,: and they debased themselves ;.m a ;way that, one- would aiever.see' m the worst slums in Eng-: tond. .They lived in tents-. 10ft. by 12ft. ;It,rained364i' days a year,more at less, and they had absolutely no recreation during their long leisure hours , but to-twiddle their thumbs. One of them; had told- him 'that'■■'■to pass the inme they had even read the advertisements on tho jam ■ tin labels ■ backwards! .Almost anybody would:drink 'in ' those circumstances.: : It: was : a scandal that those.men should be allowed to: live •such ;a ; life, without".any provision for 4heir... recreation. If he had .had 'the -money,to do it'he.would.have started a ■temperance oafe himself and run it un•der church auspices among the camps, and; that "• would have' saved ; many a man.; .Continuing his remarks, Mr. Cruickshank • 'said that'. many of - tho railway :workers were, the scum of crean >. ° ut tno greatest" difficulty: he and his fellows had to contend, with was the sending of remittances from Engfend. He implored his hearers, if they ever, had a black sheep in the family, ;not to let'•■ him', become; a remittance maa.:-That was the biggest curse that could happen to a man: Oho' of tho speaker's friends had known a remittance man who*had an order payable to bearer for,£looo, and; ho had many before that.: Mr.- Cruickshank said ■. thatthere was great need, not only for more clergymen, but for lay workers to'-go into the back-blockß. ;: