A. Nice Come

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 130, 9 May 1883, Page 3

A. Nice Come

The following is a description of one the "homes" of Auckland :-— The woman, Bur tershaw, who was committed for a month > to prison, has a number of small children and hourly exp°cts an addition to her neglected f mily. Burtenshaw is said to be an industrious, hard-working man, who for but wife's i 'drinking habits, might be m comfortable circumstances. The house m Chancery Lane is- m a filthy, feverbreeding condition , and at the request of the police, was seen by one of the Star reporters. : The poor children were m a dirty, ragged, and shoeless condition, and ir their' faces . had been washed within the last fortnight, the . ablution must have been performed by M invisible soap: and " imperceptible water." The little B^irthenshaws were crying for something to £eak The elder of the i * litter" said her .mother was always drunk, seldom washed- them, they w re starving, and their father, was away at wor K^,;-« A Verat'f youth, employed at Shorf land^streeiM v& nT W\\\b , hearing the children's cry for bread; were iu» T^ by compassionate feeling, -and fed the youngsters from their dinners.- The home of the Burtenshaws is one of tne saddest scenes akin to the ragged dens of St. 'Gile'e, that. has been witnessed m this benevolent and Christian city, and aH through a woman 'b excessive fpia of drink, and against whioh argufiientum.. iap^inum is useless.