Shocking Destitution.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 122, 18 April 1884, Page 2

Shocking Destitution.

At Poplar, m London, recently, a whole family was discovered m a Httirving condition. Mr Pitt, one. o^f the relieving officers for the Poplar 'district*-, went m company with Dr Corner, the medical officer, of health, to the hou»e, which is one of -a- -batch lately condemned, and closed by the Metropolitan Board of Works as being unfit for human habitation. Upon entering a room they saw, crowded round a few handfuls of hot ashes on (he stoveless hearth, a woman and her three children two girls|and a boy, th eel dest being apparently about twelve, and the youngest six years of age ; the boy, a cripple, lying with his head m his mother's lap. The children were m a shocking condition, and so weak and emaciated as to be scarcely able to move. Not a particle of food could be found m the place, while the only article of furniture was a broken-down iron bedstead* The stench m the room was very .bad, apd seemed enough to poison any one entering from the fresh air. Ihe woman said that her husband was at present lying 1 ill m the infirmary. They were at once removed to the workhouse. ■