APPEALS FOR HELP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3079, 9 April 1892, Page 2

APPEALS FOR HELP.

On Sunday last, at S. Andrew's Church, Cambridge, Archdeacon Willis referred to the Convention that is to be held at Te Aroha on the 20th and 21st of this month for the "deepening of spiritual life." He lead a portion of the circular convening the meeting, and urged those who could afford the time to attend. Those who could not be present he asked to pray that God's blessing might prosper the good work. He then spoke of the Auckland Orphan Home, which is now in urgent need of funds, the present income of the Home being barely sufficient for the ordinary expenses, although every item of outlay is most rigidly scrutinised. At the last meeting of the Hbme Trust Board it was stated that improvements in connection with the sanitary arrangements of the Home had now become imperative, and it was estimated that £130 would be required for this purpose. Parochial subscriptions for the Home in time past used to average from £300 to £400 ayear, but they have now fallen to about a tenth part of that sum. The Archdeacon then referred to the famine in Russia, and [ stated that although no appeal for assistance had been made to the inhabitants of New Zealand on behalf of the starving millions of the Czar's subjects, he doubted not that many would be glad of the opportunity of sending their mite to help feed the poor Russian peasants. He would be glad to receive the smallest coin to aid the twenty millions of starving peasants, would duly acknowledge the receipt, and forward it to the proper quarter. He referred his hearers to an appeal that lately appeared in the Nineteenth Century, written by M. Shishkoff, of Samara, who gives an account of a journey of four hundred miles through that province. In it he states :—"I saw numbers of men in their prime, with drawn stony faces and hollow eyes; miserable women, clothed ia rags (having sold their best dresses), and children shivering in the keen wind as they stood silently round me, while some old man would be tolling the same wewy wretched tale: 'We have sold our last horses, cows and sheep ; we have pawned our winter clothing ; we have seen no bread tor a fortnight. There is nothing left to sell. We eat once a day—stewed cabbages, stewed pumpkins; many have not even that. Some of us still have a little bread made of chaff, pounded grass seeds, and a little barley flour (this bread looks like a cinder, has a bitter taste, and causes violent headache and nausea from the poisonous seed ) Many of us have not tasted any food for three days. Have mercy on us, we are dying 1' And while he sneaks in a low, quiet voice, I see the tears slowly welling from the eyes of stalwart men, and falling one by one on their rough beards or the frozen ground. No complaints, no cries; a dead silence, braken only by the sobs of some worn-out mother." The article concludes with the following appeal:—"Christians of England! We are far off ; you cannot see our misery or hear our famished children begging for bread. But will that deter you from doing what you can to help us? Have you not a penny you can spare? Your 40,000,000 pennies would make nearly £170,000—sufficient to save 17,000 human lives." Such an appeal will surely touch the hearts of people in this Britain of the South. We trust Archdeacon Willis will soon have a decent sum of money to forward to the famishing Russians.