WOMEN TRAMPS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 April 1933, Page 3

WOMEN TRAMPS

A BIG PROBLEM IN ENGLAND.

COMPARATIVELY YOUNG GIRLS

Mo:■<.«. than KXJO young women tramps, it is estimated, are wandering about hn gland, spending the nights under nayscaoks, in barns, and in the casual wards of the work-houses. They are causing the British Ministry of Health a good deal of worry. At some workhouses the women’s wards are crowded evei y night. Some of those women have babies—though those as a rule avoid the workhouses and manage to get a penny or two by bogging each night in order to secure a night’s lodgings in a “doss house.” Others are women who are married to men tramps, and they wander about the country i:i couples,, parting for the night at the workhouse door, the man to go into one ward and the woman into another. Next morning after their tasks have- been completed; they meet again at the gate and sec out for the next workhouse, perhaps 20 miles away.

Many are comparatively young girls, Some liavo left nome to seek employment and have failed. Others are wayMard young women who have thrown up good jobs because they d.d not like hard work. These are the- counterpart of the Weary Willies' who are to ho found in male casual wards. But these women tramps dn not belong to the criminal class. Any breaches of the la tv they, commit rarely extend further than knocking at the wayside cottage and begging for a crust of bread and a cun of tea.