Hard on the Tramp.

Manawatu Herald, 15 October 1904, Page 3

Hard on the Tramp.

The professional tramp has not a life of it in Switzerland “By the Federal Statute of 1850,” says a local Government Board Inspector, -“beggars and tramps are # to be treated in accordance with the laws of the canton in which they are arrested, and those of foreign nationality are to be expelled from Ihe country. It may be said generally that if an able-bodied man is without means, is generally in search o! work, and his papers are in order, he will, on application, be supplied

by the police or by the Intercantonal Union (a private association under official patronage) with food and lodging, and will, If possible, have employment indicated to him. If he cannot obtain any, he will be passed on to the next to a relief station, to his own district, or to the cantonal frontier. If he refuses work when offered he is sent to his own district to be dealt with hy its council, and if the council (who are responsible for the maintenance of their indigent citizens) decide that lie is work-shy, he may bo sent for a form varying from three montlistotwojmars’ to a forced labour institution, which is in effeot a house of correction for persons guilty of the less serious kind's of offences. ;i Bat the police are empowered to arrest beggars without special warrant, and to bring them before a competent court, which may commit them to prison for a short term, or, in case of repeated offences and of refusal to work, may sentence them from two to six months’ imprisonment in gaol, or from six months to two years in a forced labour institution.”