Our Wellington Letter

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 103, 22 February 1890, Page 3

Our Wellington Letter

[prom, our, own correspondent.l The recent raid of the police upon on< of the gambling hells of the city, wher< over a dozen youths were found, hai brought to light a very serious state o things, and one which the police shoulc do all in their power to put down, ever though it should mean the exposure o some moving in the " upper circles " o: life, for it is well known that this evil ii not confined to the lower or even middle stratum of society. A short time back, a young lady whc was collecting for some charitable object, told me that she had to " make hay "on the last day of the month, as in Wellington there are so many Government clerks who get paid monthly, and if she did not get it on that day it would be useless, as she was told that the nest day each was trying-to borrow from his neighbor. Well, perhaps my lady friend had been misinformed as to the generality of Govern%rinent officers, but it is nevertheless a fact that there are some young men in this city who are h ying months and months behind their salary, which is no doubt due to this gambling life. Quite recently a young fellow in a good steady position here came to me the day after receiving his month's cheque, and evidently wishing to unburden his mind, - told me that he was in a nice fix, all his month's cheque had gone, he had -not paid his landlady for two months and sbe had turned him out ; his next montliV salary was already signed away to a creditor and he did not know where 'the next? meal was to come from. Such was the position of a young man earning over £12 per month. His is only one of many similar cases and I have not the slightest doubt but that the solution could be°found in some of the gambling saloons which are bidding fair to. blacken our social life unless they are put down with an unflinching hand. Is it' a man or a beast ?It cannot be either, for even one of the beasts of the field would not treat its weaker half in such a brutal maimer as did one Ezra Jones, who was punished at ti.e R.M. Court yesterday for having brutally illtreated Ins ham- working wile who ' had come home from her weary toil to find a lazy scoundrel, whom she was compelled to call husband, lying drunk upon the -floor of what' should have been the happiest "spot oh earth, and who, being awakened, vented all the fiendish brutality of hiss nature upon his poor defenceless wife. Is marriage a failure ? Well, we must confess there is a dark side to it, and this is one. ' We have heard a great deal of late years -about granting the franchise to women, and it has been urged by the fair sex that the male portion of the community are afraid of " having their noses put out" it this privilege were granted to -them, and that is the real objection. After yesterday's meeting between the Directors of the" Wellington Woollen Company and their employees it does certainly look as if woman was determined to wrest from her sterner companion the proud title of ■" Lord of Creation ;" for at this meeting the fair sex raised all the opposition they oould to the Directors,' and vented their grievances in a very outspoken manner, completely leaving the " Lords " in the background, and when, the eloquent T. Eenhedy Mac came round with the "oil fcottle " he found that the " weaker sex " would not be smoothed down in that • fashion, but resisted his appeals to the end, declaring that ■" they belonged to the Union." which indicated that they meant to stick out for what they considered their rights. ■ . •