DISTRESS IN LONDON

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 61, 29 August 1877, Page 2

DISTRESS IN LONDON

' It has now; unfortunately become aucb a. matter of- course. to hcar..o£duUi trade, that it takes, a. great deal' to. Eouse.pe.qple tp a consideration, of what- the. term, really means— vig,, misery tp many, and actual st.arvatipa to. some. The pressure, is aetoro. enough, in, the. provinces,, but in \ Lpndon.it ism some placesreajly. dreadful, the reason, being, that men whose employjmpnj; falls, them, elsewhere all endeavour, jto, get, to. London, where they have a. Ivaque. hope of getting work, to, "do. Their ! blind faith, in, this, respect has been, fitly compared, with that in, which, the Irish emigrant, until within the last three or four years, usedtto set sail fpr New Y.ork . The consequence is that, to, qupte the. [Standard^ ''"-in varioup parts of London, 'there are to-day thousands. upon thousands \ot 'artisans andi humbler workmen out of Jemployment, andi whose, chance of immejdiate. employment canppt be said: to be ! sanguine."' The yariows.charitable organisationa. Q)id their resources; taxed to thp utmost to afford even temporary, relief to, the calls of. hunger alone in these famishing and scantily clad thousands. The ' P. #• -Ma,..

plan of. giving free breakfasts on Sunday mornings to the really destitute, as has been done in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and other towns in the North for two or three years past, 19 being actively followed in tho Metropolis, where one mission alone has given free break fasts or teas to at least 00,000 pers^s in 53 different districts of IjOndon since the year began, The * meal " of each person consists of a thr?e>halfpenny loaf cut in two and buttered, and a mug of ooffee of the estimated cost of a penny. The recipients are not taken indiscriminately, but are picked out by the missionaries and' their assistants, in order that only cases of real want may receive the relief tflbrdfid. Their appearance is described ss being most wretched, and tho sights witneised upon these occasions are spoken of as being heartrending. Doubtless there are numbers in London whose need is as sore, and plight as pitiable, as that of the Bulgarian and Bosnian refugees, save only that they are not in danger of violence. Hunger aqd cold, however, kill as surely, if more slowly, than the Baabitßazouks,