LAMENTABLE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1153, 27 September 1883, Page 3

LAMENTABLE.

A clergyman who has had ten years work amongst the poor in the parish of Whitehall, writes to the Nineteenth Century the following lamentable account of the condition of the working classes in that locality:—* We find ourselves face to face with the laborer on 20.4 a week. He has but one room for himself and his family of three or four children. By self-denial, by abstinence from drink, by daily toil he and his wife are able to feed and clothe the children. Pleasure for him and for his is impossible, he cannot afford to spend sixpence on a visit to the park, nor a penny on a newspaper or a book. Holidays are out of the question, and he must see those he loves languish without fresh air, and sometimes without the doctor’s care, though air and care be necessities of life. The future does not attract his gaze and give him restful hours in thought ; he cannot think of a time when work will be done, and he will be free to go and come and re&t as he will, In the laborer’s future there is only the grave and the workhouse. He hardly dares to think at all, for thought suggests that to-morrow a change in trade or a master’s whim may throw him out of work, and leave him unable to pay for rent or for food. The laborers—and it is to be remembered that they form the largest class in the hation—have few thoughts of joy, and little hope of rest ; it is well with them if in a day they can obtain ten hours of the dreariest labor, if they can return to a waterproof room, if they can eat a meal in silence while the children sleep around, and get into bed to save coal and light—well, only because they are stolid and indifferent. Their lives slope into a darkness which is not quieted by hope.’