THE STARVING NORTH.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 86, 24 January 1885, Page 4

THE STARVING NORTH.

A social commissioner of the " Pall Mall Gazette" gives the following account of the terrible distress at present prevailing in the great shipbuilding centres in the North of England. Writing from Jarrow, he says : — An iron sky seems to enfold the town ; a peevish rain falls coldly, and Jarrow is more dreary than any place that I ever saw. Dreary it is for me, though lam warmly wrapped, but it must be a thousand times worse for the poor souls who | stand listlessly at the corners and gaze round hungrily on the unlovely houses and the grey, biting mist. The town depend* for its existence on Palmer's great shipbuilding yard ; Palmer's is the centre of life, and there is not a tradesmen or workman here whose prosperity does not vary directly with the prosperity of the enormous works established by the courage and enterprise of one man. In good times Messrs Palmer employ 12,000 men, and pay £10,000 per week in wages to artisans alone. Last year about 80,000 tons of shipping wero turned out, and a vast wage fund employed in gaining that amazing result was poured into the town of Jarrow. At present there are only about 4,000 men employed, and the works are being carried on at a dead loss for the time being. Mr George Palmer said to me: "We are content to lose for awhile. If we close our yard we shall ruin the town, and the trade might never comeback; so we go on losing steadily. We have seven ships now on the stocks ; we are able to keep a few thousands of men from starvation, and prevent our stock from going to ruin, as it would if the machinery were idle. We shall hang on till things look up a little, and we are ready to start to-morrow with a dozen new vessels, if we had the chance." I saw all that was going on in the yards, and Mr Price, the managor, gave me a most lucid account of the true position of affairs. I could not help admiring his quiet and unostentatious resolution. He lias the entire management of a great concern in which about three millions of capital are invested ; the fate of a great population depends in a measure upon his skul and foresight ; he is in the midst of a desperate fight with unprecedented circumstances ; yet he is cheerful, hopeful, and unwearied. While other men are crying out about the trade unions, and blaming the workmen's organisations for all the depression that exists, Mr Price frankly says that he approves the unions. "We get on much better now than we did at any time before the existence of the societies. We can communicate directly with the officials, and we find them businessHke and reasonable as a rule. Lately the unions have done some foolish tricks, but, on the whole, I am exposed to think that their inlluenceis good."

A Silly Strike. Mr Price told me of one proceeding which seems to me uncommonly like insanity on the part of some workmen. It was sug* gested that the men should accept 6s 5d instead of Cs 9d apiece for certain plates. At the lower rate the employer could barely make the transaction pay, and, really, the deduction of iourpence was not a serious one. Well, in spite of the fact that one thousand families in Jarrow are dependent on charity for food, in spite of the terrible slackness which has rendered the busy banks of the Tyne silent and mournful, two hundred and fifty men threw up their work and vent out to voluntary starvation. This happened a fortnight ago. Now, very few men know more than Ido of the genuine benelits which the working class and the nation have derived from the unions ; yet I think that this strike was most injudicious. Mr Trice was obliged to exclude the whole two hundred and h'f ty, and they will shortly be added to the woeful army of starvelings. Assuredly they will never get work at Palmer's any more. I c\nnot but wish that arbitration had settled this miserable equabble about fourpence.

The Distress. I have lived for long spells among the poor of various classes; I have seen the dull misery of Italian peasants, the sickening want of Ihe people in Shadwell and Poplar, the squalor ot the Dorsetshire labourers ; but I have never passed such a heartbreaking time as I have this day done among the forlorn mechanics and labourers of Jarrow. You have to harden your heart if you want to do any good, and thus the system of relief is being carried out with machinelike regularity by a body of quiet men Avho refuse to give way to sentiment. Anything more complete and dexterous than the arrangements made by the Mayor and the Town Clerk it would be hard to conceive. They have faced their cruel tafck most coolly, and they contrive to feed their swarms of hunger-bitten dependents. Yet in spite of their vigour and wisdom, ■which I cannot praise too warmly, there is a misery all around which broods over me as I write like a gruesome nightmare.

The Decont Poor. Lot me most eagerly draw attention to the fate of the decent and thrifty men who hide their poverty, who reject relief till the last fetick is sold, and who, oven when their is neither bed, nor chair, nor fire, nor clothing, still contrive to keep the floors and doorsteps of their poor houses clean. I was escorted by Mr Batey, the sanitary inspector, and I may say that I never saw any other official on such terms with a great population. Tho pcoplo addressed him as a personal friend, and his gentle presence is welcomed in every house. In squalid Irish families, in the homes of reticent Scotch artisans, in dark and maledorous alleys, he is greeted with kindly respect, and not a door in the suffering town is closed against him. He it was who showed me how the decent poor are faring.

A Hero. A soft-spoken, dark-eyed man met us at the door, and introduced us to his wife. Poor soul ! her face was pinched anil drawn, and her shoulders looked sharp and wasted, yet there was not a spot of dirt to be seen on fireplace or floor. " Twenty six weeks out of work, sir. Every penny I had saved is gone, and the furnituro must go now. We should have starved long sinco if I hadn't been careful while there was work to be got. Eh, it's bad to break up the bit home. Bad it is. I was always one for stopping in the house at nights, and the chairs and the bits of ornaments is friendly like. It'll break my heart to let them go. " " Ilavo you had relief?" "No, sir; not yet. Wo go short of food always, but' I don't like to take any tiling, so I just hunger and hunger." A sweet little child came in, and the man looked down. '■ Eh, it's hard to have them asking for bread, and not a bit to give them." The little girl drew near me, and locked solemnly in my j face ; then she lifted her baby arms and held her face to be kissed. I kissed tho poor little body, and tho father cried. Poor fellow ! His dark, patient face will be in my mind for a eood while.

A Paralytic, Damp walls, bare floor, a heavy, earthy smell, a smouldering heap of cinders, and, 'amid all, an awful sight. An old, old woman, frightfully emaciated, and shaking with palsy; evory limb quivered

horribly ; lief 'mouth gaped and slavered. " Starved I am, sir, starved," 'she said, speaking with a strong Scotch accent. ♦♦ Threescore years and ten have I borne it all. Poverty and hunger, sir— poverty and hunger and cold. Yet do I trust in the Lord. Maybe I shall meet Hini soon, and then He'll pay me for all that I pave had to bear. I haven't bitten bread' today ; . I'm dependent on my son,- and he pas. to keep eight of us. Many a time I've gone all clay without a bite. Last week (Is lived for three days on one twopenny idaf. Starved sir, starved !" I dare say the old woman drank in her day j I know shji smokes, and she clutched at the tobacco Which I offered her, and scattered it in her wild eagerness. Perhaps an old woman should not smoke, but as I saw her there with hkr grey pallor, her quivering limbs, her burden of a ghastly old age, 1 could not grudge her the comfort of a pipe. Soon she will pa^s away in cold and hunger, and chill despair. Ah me!

A Cheery Woman, Bright fire, cosy, polished brasswork, a few flowers in the window, land two industrious women knitting harq. , The. elder of these women was a moßt cheery" and delightful creature. Herswe«t Northumbrian accent had .not the ratting burr that I used to hear among the fishers, and I liked her to talk. " Seven months he's been out of work, and we've be^n living on his savings. We must just. make the best, though God knows how it will end^ 'We'll trust, you know, sir, and keep our hearts up. That's the only way. We've kept the bit house together, and thats something to say. We might have done better, but here's the lass went and got married last February, tnd her man was only in work three weeks after the wedding. We've had to keep the two of them." I admired this brave, wholesome, kind woman, and I hope she will not come to hunger.

A Young Couple. One nice modest young woman told me tbafc her husband had tramped about seeking work for over four months, and her house was pleasantly clean, but as she observed, " Every thing'ssold. We couldn't raise threepence on all that's left." She showed me a loaf. That sto serve four of us till Wednesday !" There certainly was not very much. A delicious little girl tottered in from the yard, and insistedon converting me into a playmate. I notice that children are apt to take a fancy to big men. This little tot gave me Jher commands quite imperiously. I noticed that the child was scrupulously clean, and her skin had nothing of that faint and unpleasant odour which one sometimes notices in the children of the poor. The little doll will probably receive the greater share of that loaf.

The Low Quarter. | Through woeful streets I worked my way, attended by my genial pilot. I cannot in this letter give a list of cases, but I will say that there are lines of tenements inhabited by people who have not a rag to cover them during thes,e wild-nights, not a bed to lie on, not a place to rest, save on the ricketty floor. One poor woman sat nursing a new-born baby. She was seated on a low block of wood, and the rest of the house was empty. Her husband is a strong, bearded fellow, who looked me straight m the eyes and spoke like a' man. He had not worked for three months, and his last job had been a turn at stone-breaking. " Anything in the world I'll do, sir, to get a mouthful for the bairns. There's nothing I would stick at." The woman said, ," I sometimes got a shilling or two before I was confined, but I'm over-weak now." There was no coverlid to wrap the baby in, and I fancy that dreary room will be cold on these cruel nierhts.

The Homeless. Lot it be remembered that; in a great centre of industry there are some thousands of people who have no food, scarcely any clothing, and no beds to lie on. The tradesmen are being ruined ; the resources of charity are strained ; and, in spite of the masterly struggle carried on by Mr Price} it is just possible that the town of Jarrow may by-and-by be utterly forsaken. A great concern like Palmer's is not easily to be shaken clown ; but no man can with* stand fate, and though Mr Price is a giant among organizers, yet even he may be beaten. In my next despatch I shall have something to say about the remedies which seem to me possible, but in the meantime I will go on with further details regarding the unhappy town,