LONDON’S FLOTSAM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1029, 21 November 1912, Page 4

LONDON’S FLOTSAM.

A great effort is shortly to be made by the London Asylums Board to clear the embankment of the tramps and outcasts who sleep there every night. Henceforth every policeman on night duty in the area will carry a number of tickets with him, and when he finds the night sleepers the latter will be awakened and presented with a ticket which will give him admission to an office of the Asylums Board about to be opened. This office will be open at night only, for the special purpose of dealing with outcasts, and it is simply the lact that the situation of the office and waiting-room has not yet been decided on that has kept the operation of the scheme back for a time. When the tramp presents his ticket at the office he will be questioned by the officer in charge, certain details and particulars will be taken down, and one of the charitable shelters will be communicated with at once. A ted having been found, the individual is given another ticket and sent to his rest lor the night, and on the following day he will be given some work which will repay his debt to the institution. If the scheme is a success it will be extended to other areas. The Local Government Board has been helped in the consideration of the problem of the homeless poor by an advisory committee. This committee, consisting of representatives of various voluntary

agencies, suggested this scheme, and the Commissioner of Police has offered to lend help by allowing the night constables to carry the tickets. The tickets will contain directions to apply at the office, and show the number of the constable and the date. It will be impossible for the tickets to be used for begging purposes. One of the understandings, indeed is that the police do not guarantee that the tramp will be helped. The hours during which the tickets will be given out are from ro p.m. until 2 a.m. Practically every charitable organisation which works among the human flotsam in the district have placed their services at the disposal of the Asylums Board. Those tramps who refuse to take the tickets and prefer to sleep ‘'in the open” will incur the risk of being arrested for the offence of sleeping out, which is dealt with under the Vagrancy Act, and it is hoped that the new scheme will strengthen the hands of the police iu dealing with those who turn the Embankment and the neighbouring street into open-air dormitories.