THE USE OF USELESS PEOPLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 137, 10 June 1879, Page 4

THE USE OF USELESS PEOPLE.

: The Melbourne correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes as follows; — "A curious question has arisen as to whether it is the duty of the State, br, for the matter of that, of anybody else, to keep loafers alive. Mr Beauchamp, a very useful public man in all matters relating to practical philanthropy, haß openly declared that it is a waste of money to prevent thorn dying. Aod a great many people agree

with bim that lo house them, and feed them on what are known as medical comforts, is an error in social economy, more especially as their misfortunes are, in this part of the world, the result of their own bad conduct* The question re-opens a discussion commenced some years ago by a paper read before the Eclectic Association, entitled 'The Use of Useless People,** in which the author advocated the putting to death of 'confirmed vagrants and habitual criminals, aud using (hem for physiological; experiments. There was a great cry raised at the inhumanity of tbe proposal. Mr Beauchamp is, just now, by no means solitary in his opinion; for Melbourne swarms witb vagrants* nearly all of whom have deliberately adopted that mode of life, and who refuse to follow any calling which involves the necessity of work. Indeed, it is to me quite unaccountable how the refutable portion of society so patiently endures the infliction of tiieir presence and the cost of their maintenance. Every now and then the police chase then out of tbeir retreats, and they lurk in: doorways and blind alleys for awhile, but it is tbeir delight to sleep all day in* the sun warmed gardens, of which we have so many about this city, and to prowl abaut at nightfall, seeking what they can convert to their uses. They are beggars ot thieves as occasion serves, and decent people live iv terror . and disgust at them. When they bave drunk themselves into a cooditioa of d isea se, they go into one of the hospitals, ihe Benevolent Asylum, or tbe Immigrants' Home, where they are ministered to as if tbey were valuable members of society, aod supplied with the luxuries wbtch bard working people purchase for them.