OUT OF TOUCH WITH MEN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1110, 25 April 1911, Page 6

OUT OF TOUCH WITH MEN.

AN OLD IRISHMAN

(By Tc'.eßi-apli.-Srccia! Correspondent.) Chrlstchuroh, April 24.

Among applicants for relief at the mooting of the Charitable Aid Committoo was an old man of S3 years of ago —a short, stoutly-built Irishman who did not possess a single relative or friend in New Zealand, although he had been a resident of this country for a great number of years. Some time ago ho settled in the vicinity of Christclnireh, and was given the use of a small hut. Unfortunately this hut was burned down a little while ago, and his few belongings were destroyed, so that he wns eventually compelled to seek public aid. Mis request was to bo supplied with ;i few articles of clothing, and the committee recognised that they had a genuine and candid application before them. He was asked where lie intended to make his homo for the winter, and said that lie could do very well in a tout, and would lie able tn get a little potato digging, and so "fossick out a living." Mr. W. AV. Tanner, a member of tho committee, says that the old man has lived for fifty years in Now Zealand, and, in his early days, was employed oii the Lyttelton Tunnel works. In reply to a question he said that ho was not a teetotaller, but added that he might just as well be one, for drink was qnito beyond his means. "He was sn manifestly simple," added Mr. Tanner, "that one could tell he had not been much in touch with tho world."