A GLIMPSE OF STARVING LONDON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2337, 3 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

A GLIMPSE OF STARVING LONDON.

. The following passages, published !»y She N.Z, Presbyterian from an address *sy Mr Hollitnd, will be read with painful interest:— Distress exists—widespread distress, not only in the eastern parts, but nil over the metropolis, and, I suppose all over the United Kingdom, fn tlm Jilast-end people <ro to tad supperk'ss, kdinnerless, and, I may say, in some cases, breakfastless, . Poor children make their way to school without food, and sit there without food all day long

links some good Samaritan should provide them with it. A poor woman cttino to us last week begging lis, to take into our Infant, Nursery a little babe she carried in her aim It was very pnlound feeble, and we did not at all lib- its appearance: Our nurse asked the wonian what shn had been feeding it with. The poor creature broke into tears and. said, "Well, I have been picking up the crusts that lie about in the streets, I wash -away the mud and' the soil from the bread, and soak it in water; from the sops I feed my little child and myself." That will give some idea of what manv are passing through at the present time,'

NO MONEY, NO BREAD.

On the second night of tho recent very cold weather, in one of the enormous lodging-houses wo have about a quarter of a mile from our mission, no less than 60 beds were empty. The, poor men who would have occupied them if they could have paid tho small sum reqnirod, mm permitted to sit up in the kituhen till after eleven o'clock; then they were turned out to' walk about till next morning, when they were allowed to enter the'kitchen again. These poor men—dock laborers casual labourers, and such like—have told me that they often go without food'' for many hours. One thing always strikes me as very awful, when I look down tho registrar's weekly list of deaths. Sometimes I fi«d that the cause of death is not given. I think I can trace in many such cases that the real cause of death was want of food—starvation. Oh! it is a-cruol thing—a very cruel thing indeed -to see people —young people especially—who have 'been for a long time without any food of a nourishing character; t» sew them gradually getting thinner and paler; to know that consumption or some other disease will soon have them in its grasp, aud they will be cut off in very early life. I look at the mass of such young people who come around us in our mission at George yard, and I think of how many of them will be called away at the age of H or 16. Large numbers of them never reach manhood, or womanhood, It is a fearful waste; of life. Is it not our first duty to see that the people are fed and r-othed and housed, so that they may not perish in this way!

Wo have been privileged, in connection with our work, to Bend a large number of men and women to some convalescent homes in the country; we have sent 1200 down there. I have noticed that two-thirds of those we send are suffering really from want of proper nourishing food. It is astonishing how they jiick- up after a little rest and careful treatment. There must be a very large number of those who are thus suffering for lack of proper food,

CAUSES OF THE DISTRESS. Yes, the distress exists. Tradesmen will tell you they connot meet their engagements, and they do not know whiit will be the result. Poor men and women go to their 'work, such as it is, badly and uncomfortably clothed and shod, and not sure even of a continuance of the employment they have got. May I mention some of the reasons of this distress given by these people 1 Please bear with me; I am not giving you my own opinion, but their statement in brief, First of all they complain of foreign competition. They Kiy that foreign goods are taking the place of English goods, and this takes (ho very bread out of their mouths. Articles are sent over to this county and unpacked; the covering is taken off, and and an English covering put over the package. That covering is stamped, and the goods are .shipped nut of the country as' English ■goods, though no man or woman in the' county has had anything to do in the' making of them, Then, again, they say that there are many forcigneis here who enter into competition with them. It is a fact that in the Basl-end of London there are thousands of foreigners, and they are taking the work out of the hands of our own people, How do tiny live ? I could take you into the streets where they am overcrowded to a terrible extent. The master will take a house and live in it himself. He will have about him a large number of foreigners who work for him; there will ha from five to eleven of them in one room ! They work and eat and Sleep there. And there food is not at all what our workmen will eat. Their wages, too are very small; they will work almost for nothing, though they tod from morning till night, until they sometimes sink under it. So the trade is simplv passing out of the hands of our English people into thehands of theseforeigners. ] mention these things because it appears to me that they are not generally known. I was told yesterday at Bi'ckenham, hv a clergyman, of a I stationer who, in complaining of the I dullnehs of trade, says that Englkh I workmen do not pay "the same atteni tion to business that the foreigners do. ! English stationers are very slack, but j the houses were German workmen are j employed aro so busy that they are \ actually refusing orders. Whether it he i so or not I cannot tell, but these things i are what one is compelled to listen to, ' _ Then there are Socialist Chilis. A ■ foreigner told me the other day that ! there are at least a dozen of these in ; London. Tlwe are also strikes and . immorality, and the terrible drunken:iiess; all these are causes of the present ■ distress, We must not 'overlook the : fact that we have a very dangoroue ' population in our back streets. You

all know what took place lately in'the West-end. There are hcmsw-in London, occupied by racn who never think of working. Nobody cau tell how they live, but they do live. Whenever there is a chance of a disturbance, every hack street turns out its population. They cannot bo depended on; they may be led anywhere and anyhow; Therefore yon must expect trouble with them. Tbey can, however, be reached by the Gospel. We go among them and seek to show them something better. We do what we can to win their hearts to' Christ, and to lead them away from a life of idleness and sin.