NORTH ISLAND STATIONHOLDERS AND SWAGGERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2741, 22 November 1894, Page 1

NORTH ISLAND STATIONHOLDERS AND SWAGGERS.

The determination of the stationholders in the Masterton district to afford no accommodation to swaggers is, says the Wairarapa Star, already having its effect. If it does nothing else it shows the exact number of men upon the roads, those who previously found shelter on the stations being now compelled through force of circumstances to congregate in the towns. During the past few days quite a number of men have been driven into Masterton by sheer hunger. Some of these are men who have walked long distances in search of work. On Wednesday afternoon two single men arrived in town. They were meanly clad, weary-looking and dejected. Without money, without food, and without friends, they were compelled to throw themselves on the mercies of the police. The tale they told was a sad one indeed. They were both bright, energetic, respectable-looking fellows, and had left Napier in search of work. They had tramped and tramped, from station to station, from township to township, from house to house, for something to do! No! They found two men working where they were informed ten had previously been engaged. They found owners discharging men wholesale. They were treated like dogs, and told by nearly every stationholder to go to their Government for work. Only on two stations between Napier and Masterton were they, per mitted to remain a night, and on several occasions they had to roll up their blankets and sleep behind fences with empty stomachs and weary limbs. Poor fellows ! Little had they to do with the Government or its policy, and yet they were taunted in their hunger and mocked at in their desperation. Thanks to the charity of the police, the member for the district, the Benevolent Trustees, and others in Masterton, the men have been temporarily relieved, and efforts are being made to find them work. But how many others are there in the colony in exactly the same predicament? How many are there starving on the roads ? God only knows! The Government cannot do impossibilities. But it must—it will—relieve these poor unfortunate ones who, through spite and revenge and .through no fault of their own, have been made to suffer.