COLD AND HUNGRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3529, 26 August 1926, Page 4

COLD AND HUNGRY.

CHILDREN IN THE FAR NORTH.

TWO 'MEALS A DAY, AND POOR

ONES

Supplies of food are to be sent by the first boat to feed the starving children on the northern gumlands, says the Auckland “Star.” Sister Esther states that the conditions revealed at the Education Board meeting have existed for months past and many families are destitute.

In the course of an interview she said that mission work had been carried on for 17 years on the diggings, but the situation had been growing more serious in the last five years. The districts chiefly affected were: Waiharara, Pukenui, Ahirara, Houhora, Ngataki, Parenga, Ngatira and Waihopo. A woman writing to Sister Esther from Pukenui North said recently: “We are living on two meals a day and poor ones at that. I keep the leaves in the tea-pot from the morning until tea time at night, and we have no money to buy food. The baker closed down because he could not get his money in.” .From Parenga a woman writes: “Few kind words reach us now.” And another, from Ngataki, says that she sleeps every night on a sack, and finds the nights very cold and cheerless in the winter months. “We were overjoyed to get your blankets,” she adds, in appreciation of a gift from the mission. LAST COW SOLD,

On July 10 the storekeeper at Waihope wrote that conditions were very bad on the gumfields and it was no use tilling the people to go to Auckland to get work, even if they had money to pay their passage by the steamer. Many mothers had no clothing to put on their babies, and one woman said she had sold her last cow to-buy food and could afford milk no longer. “I am so far North that if I went any further I would walk into the sea,” wrote a woman from Te Paki. From this home the mission received a box of eggs in return for gifts of clothing.

From the gumdiggers’ homes states Sister Esther, the children went hungry and cold to school, and the mothers and fathers worked on the gumlands. One little boy, in a letter written at school, asked for outfits for himself and two others, and every week the distributing centres were giving clothes to the sufferers in their districts. By the steamer on Saturday, August id, half a ton of clothing was sent North, and three other shipments had been sent this winter to relieve the distress.

Money is seldom seen in the poorer homes. The trade js by barter. When the gumdiggers have any gum to sell they hand it over to the shopkeepers in exchange for goods or payment of outstanding debts. Only the so-called prosperous folk possess a horse and cart, and some of the unfortunate ones have 'been forced to walk off their land with next to nothing in the world. Old age pensioners are a little better off. They get their pensions and live in shacks, but pay high prices for everything they buy and lead a meagre existence. A WIDE DISTRICT TO COVER. Sister Esther explained that one of the difficulties of relief work was to distribute food and clothing in the scattered districts. Only three reliable distributing agencies had been established; and, in one case, a woman with a large family had to cart her stocks ten miles by packhorse after receiving it from the depot. Now that the school teachers were willing to co-operate the position would be improved somewhat, as the schools and main depots could act in conjunction with one another.

Mr W. J. Campbell, of the Education Board, placed the statement of Mr M. Priestley, school inspector, before the Rev. Jasper Cakler, describing the seriousness of the position; and supplies of food will be serit as eafily as possible. The handicap is that steamers run only once fortnightly.