Human Derelicts.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 9 July 1910, Page 3

Human Derelicts.

IN ONE YEAR I'-tf PKOPLE DIED FROM STARVATION. PIUDE OK POVERTY. 'Dial I- , ;') j>eo]/le died of .starvation cr bad their .death accelerated by privation, in England and Wales in 11IIKS is the melancholy fact revealed liy a return issued by the Local Government Hoard. Of l-lu'e deaths til'ty-two occurred in l,iiiu!;:ii and seveiity-t hree in the pi ,)\ iih'i--s. In two cases the jury returned a \ .M'tlict that death was cause:! solely liy starvation. In eleven cases death was ascribed to starvation in conjunction with othelr causes. In rveral cases alcoholism was one of the causes. Such "hrases -as "Exhaustion following waiiit ol >-iiilici..|il I'o'id." mid "Accelerated liy want <-f lead" nceiir in every in- >'.!:■ lice. One I'iief that, stands out strikiiHily in the report is that many people-, even though starving, are too proud to ask help of anybody. Details of all the ]'2~) cases are and pathetic rending they UKike. AmoiiLC the more poignant, is that of an old agricultural lahoiwer. He had been formerly mil.ployed in a brewery, which had nensioiied him off. Hut aibout three years before his death the iMMision had to cease, owing to the financial difficulties of the brewery. "Since then," Lrrindy states the. return, "deceased had only obtained o<ra."ini!'Hl work, apparently too proud to .ask for relief." At the last lie was unable to work through rheumatism.

.But lie perished with stolid heroism, without applying "to his children or to the relieving odieer I'oi , any help or assistance."

A woiitoiii of sixty-three, occupation unknown, (Med suddenly from uraemia accelerated by exposure ami want of food .ami iwirsiiKj;. Slio was homeless, and lia([ bit , n ".slocip\a<l out" in the Whitecliapel district' for .ahmi.t fire w.""ks, having cf>me from I'ainliam, where slu> bad lived for the past five ind a 'half yeiirs. Tn connection with the. death of a. dressmaker, from wU'it cf siiilicicii/t'. lunirislimont, tlin officiT states: "Tlmt uxnian, wlii.yn (le.vtb was afoolcritcd liv »\aut f>l nrop , . , ! , fond, does not a|»p j nr to have liiadi , anv to me for relief, no.itlier is slio ollicrwiso kirowiin to mo." DRT3AD OF THR "TIOrS.R." A man of cialitv-two. r!(.;i,t)i wan hastened bv "want r.f food nn'T of life," declined to .c'o to tlui workliou.s". An (irt'liitpnt. who "died in tli.e worklionso from of tlie liMitrs, niter (le^-titutfrm at lionie," was :ui iiWL'iitor. two inicfMiiplote-d models of an aiihunatic piano player heiny found in the room be occupietl in l[oH)f>rn.

'''.J. 1).," formerly a bank manager of Soublwark, faintrd from the results of starvation and exposure, fell 'in a stoiiw corridor, fractured Iris ."kii.ll, and died '•.;.!' t'ae effects. _ A coacinnan's widow, y.'bo d ed at Whitecbapel sudde'ily from piionmonia accelerate:! by exposure and v.Miifc of food, was I'oiiielc-'.s, and bad ■I).-.mi "lying about for ssiiu , lime." To tho account of the death of a h >.tlier cu'ttor, who died in St. Panciiis AVorkhoiise of heart failure ae(■■'.jM'ated by starv.uiion p.ii'-l neiilti-t, i , ; appended this note: "ft appears tl'ifc tliis man drifted into a state of ))')vorty thro'iigli want of ener.'iy < (!iisec|iionifc on the tragic cle-ath of I'is wife two years previously." W. A., tramp. Died from exhaustion owing to win lit of food. He. v..s foujid in a (1 yinuc condition in «nn isolated farmlionso in Westmoro--I'iid, where ho fviid, he Ind lain for a., fortnight.