FREE MEALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 650, 30 April 1929, Page 20

FREE MEALS

SAILORS HELP WORKLESS SEAMEN’S GENEROSITY The Ferry Building siren sounds the midday hour. Cranes cease moaning, ships’ winches stop clattering, wharf labourers don their coats, and seamen leave their rust chipping. All industry must cea3e while man eats. The worltless must eat also, and the waterfront provides one example of the manner in which the hungry unemployed get occasional meals. A score or so of these dejected unfortunates climb aboard a vessel as soon as work ceases and make for tbe ‘‘commissariat department.” Half of them are unemployed firemen and “know the ropes.” Others have acquired essential information through practice or are gaining it now It is seldom that these men are refused a meal. The sailor-man is a generous fellow—moreover he has probably been “through the mill” himself, aud it is true that “a fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind.” When a man is down and out he gets his greatest sympathy from those who have suffered similar experiences. The hungry men are accordingly fed, and go ashore again to continue the quest for work with hopes refreshed and vigour revived. All hail to tie mariner, who, when in the port of Auckland, does his bit in relieving the sufferings of her unemployed.