CONDITIONS OF SQUALOR

Hokitika Guardian, 22 November 1929, Page 7

CONDITIONS OF SQUALOR

MARRIED COUPLE RESIDING

IN FOWL HOUSE.

BLENHEIM, November 19

The appalling condition of filth and squalor under which a married couple have been living in Blenheim were discovered when the police last night made a raid on premises located in Halifax Street.

Court proceedings were taken this morning against the persons concerned and the statement made by the prosecution regarding the wretched state in which two ot the accused were found to be living was afterwards investigated by a reporter and found to 'be not one whit exaggerated. The pressman found his way to the rear of a house in Halifax Street, where he came upon a hovel in which the two prisoners had been residing. The home was an old, decrepit fowlhouse. The structure was not half the size of a decent living-room, barely high enough to allow a man to stand upright, its Avails and roof were patched Avith odds and ends of material, an old coat covered a gaping hole in the door, and upon the earthen floor lay a heap of straw littered Avith old sacks and articles of clothing. Near the doonvay Avas a benzine tin in AA r hich fires had been lighted. Beside it stood a blackened billy—the only evidence of kitchen equipment.

The Avails and • ceiling were smokegrimed and draped Avith dusty cobAvobs. It was a picture of unbelievably sordid squalor. Drink was the cause of the couple’s doAvnfall. The Bench considered the case an exceptionally bad one and .sentenced both accused to terms cf three months’ imprisonment.