"THE SHADOWS OF LONDON." (From the Auckland " Star," Nov. 24.)

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 78, 29 November 1884, Page 6

"THE SHADOWS OF LONDON." (From the Auckland " Star," Nov. 24.)

Tn*, first of a series of four lectures under this iitlo was delivered last night in tho Opera House by Mr Fred Crook, before a modorato audience. It was of a descriptive character, interspersed with sound reflections, and it proved very interesting indeed. Starting with a graphic sketch of St. Paul's Cathedral, the lecturer went on to traco the course of a wintry day in London from its foggy and shivering opening till its bleak and dreary close. Then winging his flight to tho East End, he took certain types oi character and held them as illustrative of tho millions of poor in the vast metropolis, who, as they eat ono meal, havo no knowledge wheic the other is to come trom. Jle showed, too, that hopeless poveity and wretchedncf-b were rather tho predisposing causes of drinking habits than their cfleots. Chained like galley-slaves to tho oar of labour, thousands toiled amid cheerless, unwholesome- surloundings trom week's end to week's end with a pipe of tobacco or a pint of beer as their only possible enjoyments in life, lie then went on to show that (he well-meant ollnrts* of nch philanthropists lor the amelioration of the poor had been frustrated oither through ignorance of how to set properly to work, or else through the inteivention of a class of middlemen, who battened upon misdirected beneficence. I'oabod.yV hoail, ho said, was bioken by the paltry results of his oxpendituio of halt-a million .sterling to improve the homes of the poor. The bariack discipline which wa- established thove away tho the very class .vhich it was .sought to leach. In fact, the Cumniitteo of nobodies who managed the tru&t sifted as it were the great man's money tlnough a ladder, the poor getting what fell upon the rungs. Lord Shaftesbuiy was also a kind and benevolent man, but for similar rca-ons- his chaiity faded to produce the bunclit which was designed. As tor t ha Chaiity Organisation Society or Mendicity Society, its iailmowas .shown by the iact that while ono year lec^ntly its income amounced to \A,'22\, its sule cxpendituic for relief puipo.se> w.is L/2li, Ll'27 moie distributed in the way of loans, H'2i paid for postage stamps and cab hiic, while salaries and olhee e.\pen.-o-> swallowed up iho remainder. In tho Icctmcr't. opinion, (Jeorge K. Sim.s, -suiting aa a journalist under tho norn de}duiuc of " I'agonct,' had done more for the poor of London than any other man living. Altei reciting an allccting poem by this writer, Mr Ciook went on" to describe a thieves' kitchen and the schoolroom attached to it, whciein by means of a coat suspended trom a rope sketched between two bells the young idea was taught to shoot in the line of professional thievery. When tho contents of the coat pocket could be abstracted without ringing the bell the >oung pick-pocket was qualified to take to the street. lfa\ing next described Doolan'.s Soup Kitchen, and poitrayed the ehaiacter of that class of avuiicious pioperty -ow ncr- in poor quaitcis of whom " The I'atiiaich "in "Little Porrit " i.s a fail type, Mr Ciook went on to give several heartrending easo of landloid ciuclty, and of that pathetic sympathy which only the poor ha\ c for the poor. In hi^ closing remarks, he said that ll the £0'2, U00.000 spent annually upon icligion wore devoted to tho 1 diet of (litres*, and the miti<j.dion of .1 giinding po\ert}, the woil.l would be the better, and religion could take cue of it=clf. Tho sccund luctmo nt tho Fciios, '"Mn.ie, and Mi-eiy," sill be delivered on Sund >\ evening next.