"DARKEST LONDON."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 94, 9 April 1908, Page 3

"DARKEST LONDON."

A -MEMORABLE LECTURI:

. "">' "I the lillest, it not Uic lin,. s l, lectures o»-i-r listened to by a AVw 1>| ViiK'iitli audience was I hill given list '■'KlU by til.- Jlev. .lame., FluiiUKi.ii, euV"" 1 •■'•'""'■'•.■.■ll Ws i„ '""'■' ll who have seen MIIIII . ~ Hi'' phases ~1 bmdoiu slum life, whilsi somewhat prepared for H„. scenes ,„■ I"" - ' - '" - l".ll(I..Il,-,i, <.„u|i| never have '"'■■»"n\ Hut tln-v- would be presented '» >i«'l. vivid word-pictures. The reelecMons iini-t In- scared i„ tin- lecturer-. ''.';""• ««>! in telling (In- stories il„. i„". "'l'»l> iiiv »w again l,v tl„. h-ciurer «'"1 |.<>n rayed in such striking lan-na..-I '"I it is liurd. in listening, to believe that hundreds of miles of land mid Wilier intervene between H„. s i, lllls ~„,( "' l«-t»iv-l.i.!l. To the colonials inn t ho-,, who have ,i„ personal knowledge "! !"«' 1" tin- poor i|iiurti-rs of the Fan--I'ircs capital ,iLy tlu; details given <- a m» ■is ii revelation which forced them to "•-echo the words of the Mayor in intro;l»nii« tin- lecturer: "1 feel thiit Kngland has never done her duty wU(°i such a slate „f things exists in' all ,| K , Lirge cities at Jloine." London was described as tl„. capital city not only of tin- -.lupin- hut „f tl„- W orld. !>on'do>i, Mr Hinagan si.id, was a mystery which ''"•lv the all-wis,- <; 1)( | ( .„uld understand. I here were many l.ondons. There Wiis London hy night: then- was Loudon inday: Loudon Wen, and London poor; London that was -ignilicu by tin, eilsl ;">d another dillen-nt London signilid >y the west; London underground, and London al.ove..i-o„.id. He marvelled ill the brainpowcr-or was it ignorance'-- "' those who. alter spending., few hoi.-, ..I Westminster and on the d eof St. I'miFs. returned to their lion.es in thenprovinces declaring they had „ Lonl«ii. Xow. after over fourteen vcais' work in one .piaiter of London', tiemissioner said: "I declare to you'that bmdon is t„ n,e as great a mystery mil as great ~ problem to-d.i v as ever t was." liy "darkest" bunion lie did lot mean the mo-t wicked part of the ■itv. (Hi. no. Were hi- looking for the nost wicked |,e would 1.-ave the haunts °l li"' l""»' ..ml visit I'ieadillv. Ilv.le I'iiik. Kol.cn l!ow. and the people who |>ui-.-.d.-.l th.-n-. "Darkest London" lav in Ih- south-eastern ,-nd, just over the '' '"" hri l |ge. in and around St. Saviour - .- |> a ,i„|,. whore hunger stalked abroad and the people were Imildli-d together like herrings i„ ;v tt ,sk; where overcrowding, disease, poverty, and death Mere great stains that seemed Ii lower the dignity and grandeur of our i great and glorious land. . That was | where hi- had been privileged by God t to lift the eiirtain that had hidden from the gaze of hundreds a nil thousands of people in Kngland the cancer of her poverty and shame. Chniies Booth, th.greatest living authority on London and her religious, industrial, and social lifp, declared that m St. Saviour's Parish the highest percentage of poverty was ri-ielu-il. There eighty people in every hundred when they woke i.i the morning had no bread to cat. nor knew where they were to get food. And this \vi, »"t " ic epidemic „f poverty. It extended back for years, and hundreds -if years. Kut in the pa-t lifteen or sixteen .years much h.ul been done, and after his life of toil in the slums he was never more hopeful than In- was to-day of bullion becoming the city of Cod. 'Lovih.il was never, never inure worthy ol its fame and glory or of being the 'capital of a great F.nipiro. "That's inv testimony, and I come from the worst of it,' - he added. Though his district was the I 'est. there was not u costcruiuiiger in it but was proud of the old spin. Not allot her spot on this planet—with the exception of the •■green hill far away, without a city wall"--had done more for Christianity and for the world by the production of great character

slum though it ivus. All the kingdoms of 111.- earth which load liliTutuiv. wen; indebted to it. Tli,. lecturer thru, in a brilliant iirray of word-, luhl how the Kings anil (.Ineoiis of Knglantf- fur con- i turics past had aluavs 11 ;l v<ll<<l to Hi.: coronation by way of Southward in this povcrty-slricKell area, fur there ill ;11l "lil church had Kin;; llcnrv <if m.l wrest 1...1 in prayer tin- night through nnd gained strength ivliii-li enabled lib , few liuudri'd lni'ii to overthrow tli=Fivncli .it Agincourt. mid thus !<,■■, Ilritain for the llriti-h. It was hove Hint tlic greatest «jf painters came for the "suhjecl*'' tlml were tiuii.-fciicil '.n tin- world-famous ciiiiviisi's. A tpiacK doctor (in the bank-side developed inl'i Oliver Goldsmith, the poet. John Jlimvan nnd Shakespeare had been wed, known tlii'iv. liishops Latimer nii.l Hooper. liurncd nt tlic stale,, for then-Indii-f and in tin' determination that in™ should ho allowed to read the rail'.for themselves and confess direct to (!od without iiiterniediaries. lived and preached there. The locality, 100. reared the immortal Charles Dickens, and «av Chaucer his ideas lor ''The Cantcrbnrv Tale-.- It gave to the world liober'r llrowuiiig. and near it John lluskin and Joseph Chamberlain had tledr birth, lie could go on. he said, enumerating for hours some of the greatest and grandest and most precious assets of llriti-h history, all emanating from this district. Uul its glorv was now gone. -Now hunger stalked al.n.ad, and the poor were neglect, d and lived in their wretchedness and -haine. He depicted some heartrending scene- of squalor and sin, poveriv and ignorance, and then went on to'toll of his advent to the slum, leaving one of the lines! churches and largest congrcgalions ont-ide bunion, lit his' native town, loved liv his people, to lake up slum work, lie spok,. of the iliMicullics. uivat and small, that confronted him in his work. How lie had had to turn the church building into a plavrooiu [or the -treot lads and voung men and to plav with them: how gradni ally they were' induced to refresh their I dirtv skins and wash their reeking elotiies; how ladies started among thneglected and lilthily-clad girls and taught them the ns ( . of Hie needle until they made their own clothes and dressed cleanly anil neatly; and how all this gathered the young around the church and prepared them for the truth of Roil: how the interest taken-in Hie young awakened tin: lietler instincts of hither to drunken and neglectful parents; all these were told and illustrated with pages from his life's experience, grave and gay, terrible and mirthful. Tim:: had worked wonders, until now, as the result of the mission work by his nolde j and self-sacrilicing helpers, it was alI most im]H>ssil)lo in that district for a woman lo die of neglect, or a child for want of a mouthful of hread, as the;; had previously died in hundreds. And on and on went the lecturer until nearly hall-past 10 o'clock, speaking for two hour-, lo nil audience who seemed ready to listen to him for another like period, so interestiuj. ihc ihenie and so into.- | eslcd in it were the lecturer and audience alike. After Ihe conclusion of the lecture the l!ev. Mr. Khiungaii -aid that link the oilier dav he had received fro',,l Ihe'liev. Joseph .iolin-011. now ill charg" 01 the iiii-simi. a letter in which he staled that never had thev had -o many emu" inr broad at the doors of the mis-ioii. Hundreds had had lo he tinned away. If anyone would like in help tltfir poor struggling fellows in the great metropolis, their help would lie gratefully received and acknowledged. Any nul could he forwarded through the llev. Mr Cnv or through the editors of the local newspapers. ,„■ he would forward ,i hiin-elf. This appeal he made because the Idler a-ked liiin: "Klaiiagan. if for ( hii-l's sake in v'lur lectures you can ; ju-i s;, v a word for us. do so/' 11,. then thanked the Mayor for presiding, ant ' concluded the meeting by pronouncing the liencdieliiui.