DISTRESS IN WELLINGTON.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 12 July 1880, Page 2

DISTRESS IN WELLINGTON.

The Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Star draws a very dark picture of the distress prevailing in the Empire city. He writes :~ " The distress ..in Wellington is increasing. Evidently dreadful suffering must occur in the winter months. Within twenty four hours of the Norfolk's arrival at the wharf, some passengers applied to the Benevolent Institution for relief. Many of the passengers who came to Wellington are said to have thrown up respectable situations at home. A petition is being signed by working men, to be sent to Washington, asking the American Government to provide passages to that state. Lately tbe corporation dis« charged a. number of men employed on road work?, on the ground that in con« .sequence of the discontinuance of the subsidies expenses mnst be curtailed. Many of these men have families, and amongst the discharged who were working at ordinary navvy work for a mere pittance are some professional men. The iron foundry, which used to employ one hundred men, hns now only twelve men. Meanwhile the funds of tbe Benevolent Society are exhausted, and tbe Government declines to come to their aid. The only thing cheap here is mutton, legs of which from the boiling-down establishment fire hawked about the streets at a shilling each, and at one place ninepence, I fear there will be terrible distress in Wellington this winter.