DRINK AT THE CAMPS.

Patea Mail, 26 October 1880, Page 3

DRINK AT THE CAMPS.

Sit:, —Would you kindly allow us to express our indignation at the erection of a shanty at our camp (Chapman’s road), for the sale of intoxicating drinks. Surely they do not consider intoxicating drinks necessary to our subsistancc. We are told that our pay is drawn from the Charitable Aid Fund. I take it that this fund is set apart for the especial purpose of relieving the destitute. Then do not insult us by allowing an additional disgrace added to our already painful position. Englishmen arc proud-hearted and beg not until they arc on the threshhold of starvation. All cannot obtain a living alike who are willing to work. Old age and sickness and misfortune are of as old a date as the world. Let the hungry be fed ; drive not the needy and deserving to desperate deeds ; find the poor employment, and let them be fairly paid for what they do. Any true man, however loyal he may be, will sooner fight than starve or see his family want bread. One who has both suffered and endured patiently writes this ; one who knows what the poor fee* and undergo, even those who “have nowhere to lay the head.” We therefore earnestly hope that sufficient has been said to induce the proper authority to have so contemptible a of resort at once removed from our iSfct, and we. the unemployed, will with one accord gratefully acknowledge the response. O.VK 01' run UXKMI’LOVKD. Chapman’s Camp, Patea, Oct. 2oth.