City Missioner Sleeps in Domain

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 632, 8 April 1929, Page 1

City Missioner Sleeps in Domain

DEW-DAMPENED GROUND “DOWN-AND-OUT” EXPERIENCE "For some hours I slept well enough at intervals, but at 3 a.m. I woke up and shivered until dawn. But I wouldn’t give in—not for pounds.” That is how the Rev. Jasper Calder described a night spent in the Domain, where he lay and wooed Morpheus on the damp, dewy ground under a tall tree near the cricket pitch. It was a humanitarian thirst for experience as an Auckland “down and out” that persuaded Mr. Calder to carry out this strange and uncomfortable experiment. “I had often wanted to spend a night in the Domain like those homeless fellows do, but Saturday night was my first opportunity,” he told a Sun man. IN SHIRT SLEEVES At 11 o’clock .on Saturday evening he left his home in Park Road, clad in his ordinary clerical clothes. To avoid becoming dirty he wore a light overcoat, but to compensate for this extra warmth—infrequently enjoyed by the men whose habits he was about to study—he dispensed with the coat of his suit. * “I had no old clothes,” he remarked. “They were given away long ago.” For a time he strolled about and addressed a salutation to the wanderers lie met. He was rewarded -ydth gruffly muttered answers. He not speak to anyone for he is known to practically every down-and-out man in the city, and recognition might have been followed by resentment. At midnight he selected a tree near the cricket score-board and lay down with the collar cy his overcoat pulled up and his hat on the side of his head. He saw five other men selecting similar quartersi—three in the bush and two on the cricket ground. NIGHT-LONG WANDERERS “I was amazed at the number of people who were abroad during the night,” he continued. “They were walking about up till 2 a.m. What they we’re doing, goodness only knows. “Yes, the men who sleep in what they call ‘Jimmy Gunson’s Park,' always select the open. If they go to the pavilion they are moved on during the night by the police.” For a time Mr- Calder managed to keep warm, and at intervals he slept, but the grass was heavy with dew and gradually he became damp and chilled. The exposed portion of his head was covered with moisture, and at three o’clock sleep had flown. But he stuck it out till the milk cans were rattling on the streets beyond the Domain. Then he rose stiffly and walked to his home, there to eat a hearty breakfast. To-day, Mr. Calder is convinced by personal experience of the great need for the night shelter he will have in operation within a month. “It will be something more than a dosa house,” he said. “Shelter must be provided free for upward of 100 men to whom hot drinks and food will be given. “‘I know now the hardship of sleeping in the open, and if it is like that in April, what will it be in June? Sometimes these men are given a blanket, but they have nowhere to ‘park’ it during the day. so they sell it for food or temporary shelter*” In the course of his address on Sunday evening the Rev. Jasper Calder told of his experiences and stressed his determination to secure shelter for his fellow-sufferers of Saturday night.