DESTITUTION IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9548, 21 July 1909, Page 7

DESTITUTION IN CHRISTCHURCH.

PAWNBROKERS NOT BUSY. Although it is asserted that there is a great deal more genuine destitution in Christchurch than there has been for many years, the pawnbrokers in that city do not feel it. Business this month has ( been slacker than it has been even in the middle of winter fir years past. One pawnbroker in the city told a reporter that his total loans for this month, as far asit had gone, amounted to only 16s. Comparatively few pledges are submitted, and on the whole they are redeemed promptly and without much difficulty. "We don't live upon the poor," said another pawnbroker, "we live upon those who have a little property and a little go in them. It is people who want small sums for business purposes that keep us. The business may be small, but it is important to those who are concerned in it, and our assistance often leads to greater things, bringing perhaps independence, if not affluence. We are the small man's banker, and'we don't know what he would do without us. Time after time we pay his rent. The money that is obtained from us and spent in drink is absolutely trifling: we don't encourage that sort of business."