CHRISTCHURCH CROOKS.

NZ Truth, Issue 74, 17 November 1906, Page 5

CHRISTCHURCH CROOKS.

The Heartless Hotel Pirate.

Shameful Treatment of a Girl.

The Brewer and the Widow.

Christchurch, never had much of a name as a place where big-hearted philanthropy, nourished. It has always been too churchy for any attribute of the Man of Galilee to be prevalent. But since the Exhibition seized upon it the people seem to have gone mad with the lust of gold and, they appear to look upon all who come within reach of their talons as prey. None is too poor to be exploited, hone too rich to be robbed. The hotel and boarding-house keepers have ravened like wolves and— the slump has set m already, and already , their rooms, for the use of which they have charged so extortionately, are emptying fast, and their meagre fining tables, are deserted ; while., m their greed, they m many cases offended and drove out their regular boarders, and, needless to say, won't get them back again. This is not the oily kind of robbery indulged m during the rush. A tale comes to this office of what happened to a respectable girl, who, with a girl friend, came over from Sydney ' fco seek employment. She had spent her bit of money before she got a billet as waitress at the Royal Hotel: She put m a week of severe toil during the first rush' and crowding, and last Friday week she was feeling the effects and was also suffering from a severe sore throat ; whereupon the manageress of the hotel, a large Irishwoman, told her to pack up and go, as she was no good .there if she could not work, which she was unable to do.

The girl packed and went to Mrs Tatters-all for her wages ' for the week she had served, but was told there was nothin-p coming to her and was actually turned out into the streets, friendless and penniless m a strange, town ; and this at the hands of a sister woman, too. This Christian creature and her husband are only managing the house for Manning's brewery, and it would be interesting to Know into whose pocket that poor young girl's hard earned wages went. Any wonder, when women can be found heartless enough to throw a girl, alone and without means, on to the streets" of a strange city, that 'girls sxiccumb to temptation and necessity and go to swell "the pale army of the night." In this case a friend was raised m> m the person of the proprietor of a private hotel, who has taken her m until she recovers her health and can find another situation. But what her fate might well have been, exposed to the. temptations of a city thronged with men from all par,ts of the worlds unaccompanied by their womenfolk, and without a shelter or the means of getting a meal or a bed, may be easily . imagined. ANOTHER CRUEL CASE

is that of a widow who— with her husband up till a year ago— has been keeping' a hotel at Kaiapoi. When her man was dying, the wealthy brewer who owned the house assured him that he would see his wife right and would never turn her out of the hotel. Her lease expired last 'June, and t now someone has come along and offered the fat brewer a stiff sum for the goodwill of the. house, and the man who solemnly promised a dying man to stand by his widow at once wrote ordering her to vacate the place within a week. She protested that she could not possibly get out m the time and got an extension of a fortnight, and the intimation that the brewery had made up its grains, or it's guts, or it's mind or somethin"- not to let its hotels be run by women m future. Yet this poor widow had scrupulously met every engagement, owing nothing for rent or stqck. Her husband had paid a large sum for the goodwill when he went m, but she is driven out without a chance to sell it m her turn.

. Truly, Christchurch is a good town to keep out of, and there are some queer people m it. as well as m the House of Representatives.

Cook asked the barman for a drink, but as he had no money on him it was refused. Tjien he asked Jones, who was with witness, to shout and Jones did. But as

COOK STARTED SINGING he was ordered out of the place. A few minutes afterwards witness and Jones left and found Cook lying on Use tram-line, and fearing that he >.ould be cut .up by a tram they picked him up out of kindness, and deposited him m the right of way. There were some boys there and they started teasing Cook, so they were chased a>Way. Neither he nor Jones robbed or assaulted Cook— he swore that. "Isn't this an old game of yours, following drunken , men and robbing them ?" aSked 'Tec Chrystal. "No, it isn't," replied Donnelly emphatically. "Haven't you been previously convicted of robbing a drunken man ?" "Well, I was once fined £1 m connection with a watch." The other prisoner, Jones, gave similar evidence, and emphasised the fact that he was a ha-rd-working man, and wasn't an associate of Donnelly's ; he had only known him. 'through-. working at the Exhibition, where both had been toiling; Asked if the place he was lodging ;at wasn't' habited by

MOST DISREPUTABLE PEOPLE, Jones denied it ; so far as he knew they were honest and respectable. The bench remarked that m face of the story told by the boys, which was unanswerable, he must convict. He then sent daring Donnelly to gaol for six months. As nothing was known against "Ginger" Jones, and as he never sent a man to gaol for a first offence, he would line him £5 or a month, and a week was allowed m which to pay. "Ginger" is indeed a very 1 lcky individual, and he will no doubt discard the robbing of drunken men as- a side line m future.