CANTEENS for “UNEMPLOYED.”

Patea Mail, 20 November 1880, Page 3

CANTEENS for “ UNEMPLOYED.”

Sin, —In reference to the local of Saturday last, on unemployed, charity, and drinking canteens, I beg leave to object altogether, as one of the said unemployed, to the wording of the article, inasmuch as the canteens are not for drinking purposes solely—in fact drink is less than a secondary consideration, as any of the men here who never indulge it will vouch for. Before their erection, butter, eggs, &c, were, from not over-scrupulous storekeepers and settlers, between a fourth and fifth more. This is indeed a “ luxury to men working at merely subsistence wages,” and one Mr Editor, I opine, you would be the last to object to, or any right minded settler. But I can readily understand the settlers, at the instigation of those few not overscrupulous store and hotel keepers, lending their names to the protest ; otherwise what objection could the settlers have ? Because almost within a stone’s throw of this camp is situated the hotel, where the men, if so disposed, could easily spend the -nightly small sum at their command.—Yours, &c, H. B. Hume. Kakaramea Camp, loth.