OUT OF TOUCH WITH MEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3205, 28 April 1911, Page 2

OUT OF TOUCH WITH MEN.

AX OLD IRISHMAN. Among the applicants for relief at the meeting of the Charitable Aid Committee in Christcureh was an old man of 83 years of age—a short, stoutly-built Irishman who did not posses a single relative or friend in New Zealan/1, although he had been a resident of this country for a great number of years. Some time ago lie settled in tile vicinity of Christchurch, and was given the use of a small hut. Unforunately this hut was burned down a little while ago, and his few belongings weie destroyed, so that he was eventually compelled to seek public aid. His request was to be supplied with a few articles of clothing, and the committee recognised that they had a genuine and candid application before them. He was asked where he intended to make his home for -the winter, and said that he could do very well in a tent, and would he able to get a little potato digigng, and so “fossick out a living.” Mr W. Tanner, a member of the committee, says that the old man has lived for fify years in New' Zealand, and, in his early days, was employed on the Lyttelton Tunnel works. In reply to a question he said that lie was not a teetotaller, but added that lie- might just as well he one, for drink was quite beyond his means. “He was so manifestly simple,” added Mr Tanner, “that one could toll he had not been much in touch with the world.”