SLEPT IN DRAIN PIPES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 594, 21 February 1929, Page 1

SLEPT IN DRAIN PIPES

HOW WORKLESS VAGRANTS LIVED GIVEN WEEK TO FIND WORK Two companions who have been sleeps ng out and cadging food about the wharves- were given a week to find work when they appeared at the Police Court this morning on a charge of vagrancy. _l’orcy potter, aged 21, and Walter Henry Cole, a fireman, age.l 22, pleaded guilty to being idle and disorderly, having insufficient lawful means or support. Sub-Inspector McCarthy said that both men had been cautioned several times, as they were hanging about tho wharves, and did not seem to caro whether they found work or not. Their bed was the unused pipes on Campbell Point. “Cerr has been in Auckland for over two sponths, and refuses to go to the country, where he could find work,” concluded tho sub-inspector.

Cerr: I want to make a fresh start. Mr. W. R. McKean, iS.M.: Like others, you are very penitent when you get here.

Cole, according to the sub-inspector, had come off the Pakeha nine months ago. Tfe had been loafing about tho city with Cerr.

Cole: I am looking for work, nit loafing.

Mr. McKean: You would rather potter about the wharves and watch oth« r men work than do anything yourself. Captain Holmes, of the Salvation Army, offered to provide the men with bed and breakfast, and the case was adjourned for a week to give them a chance to find work. MONEY FROM WIFE John Holmes, a labourer, aged 49. who was said to be from the West Indies, was charged with vagrancy and using obscene language. He pleaded not guilty on both counts. Constable Mahood remembered having seen Holmes in Queen Street everv day for two weeks, when he was usually in a half-drunken condition. Tho man had admitted to him that he lived by cadging and stealing. Another witness said that Holmes had used disgusting language to him for no apparent reason, while he was standing talking in Queen Street. Holmes denied this. Mr. McKean: I would rather tako the other mans word than yours, and fined Holmes £4 for using the language,. On the other charge he remanded until to-morrow to enable him to call a land agent, who he claimed could testify that he was in receipt of £1 a week from his wife on account of some property he had made over to her.