The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-01-01
A TERRIBLE PICTURE.
CONTINUED from First Page.)

the last few years.
But, whatever Canada may have to
offer, so far as India and the Australian
colonies are concerned, there would be
little prospect of lettering the conditions
of the poor. The depreciation of the ru-
pee in India has led to a financial crisis
there that has caused widespread suffer
ing. Officers, government employees and
other English residents, being paid in
the coin of the country, have almost no
compensation for it's discount in their
necessary commercial transactions with
the mother country.
AUSTRALIA IN 1894.
When | arrived in Melbourne, Austria
liza, May 1, 1894. there left that day for
England 700 persons. There were in
the city some twenty thousand vacant
houses, and $4,000 people had emigrated
within the year. Those who had been
living most extravagantly during the
season OF fictitious prosperity which fol-
lowed the preceding years of wild specu-
latiOn were reduced to absolute penury
when the collapse came AS small
evidence of the prevalent poverty, I re-
member that while my friends and
were waiting for the tram to take us
to the law courts, hackman came
across the street and begged us to en-
ploy him, saying that he charge us no
more than it would cost us to go by the
tram which was a siXpence.
During a weeks sOiourn in Melbourne
which, through it's bank failures, was
practically bankrupt, l did not see one
cheerful countenance. Despair and mis-
cry were in the very air. The situation
has somewhat improved but the return
to prosperity has been retarded by pro-
tracted and disastrous drought, to which
ali the Australians colonies are subject
In Sydney the condition was more hope
fui, but even the hard times were keenly
felt; the railways showed ruinously de-
creased earnings; there were no funds to
properly clean he streets and to take
care of the parks, and the colony was
seriously pressed to provide for it's own
unemployed, without undesired access
sions from England. More than this,
Australia is Q country of very limited re-
sources. The interior is a vast salt des-
ert, and the narrow margin of fertile land
along the coast is subiec5 10 ,lroughts Of
sometimes two years duration, during
which the pastures are burned up in the
intense heat, and in which, owing to the
absence OF springs and streams. cattle
and sheep die by thousands. 1t has not
a sufficient population to support manu-
factories to an extent that might advan-
tageOusly affect the public revenues. The
demand is comparatively so limited that
it is less costly to buy in England the
products of cheap labor, in a market
where there is constantly a great over
production, even taking into account the
cost of transportation. Almost every
thing is imported from the United States
~ ,cr1a \ H.
and half the only really profitable labor
has been in the rich Coolgardie gold
mines, but they are so remote from the
settled portions of the country, in re-
gion Astounding absolutely sterile, and
where water was sold for Fl quart, that
the cost Of development has greatly di-
minished the profits.
CONDITIONS IN NEW ZEALAND.
In New Zealand and Tasmania the con-
dition of things is 40 better. In New
Zealand during my visit in 1894, when
| went from one end of the colony to the
other, and in which I had long interviews
with the heads of the government, there
was the same difficult problem to be met
work and wages for the unemployed.
A limited number had been provided
with labor a short time before, in the
kauri fields but the decline in price, ow-
lng to the OverstOcking of the market
decreased the demand, and the discovery
of cheaper substitute put stop to this
others were assigned to clearing govern
ment lands-a herculean task, when one
remembers the almost impenetrable
character of the New Zealand bush"
and the native trees, the grain of which
is like adamant. New Zealand was then
implOring that no more pensioners upon
the public bounty be sent to her. and Tas-
mania was sending up the same petition
Several years ago Annie Besant shock
ed and Mortified all orthodox England by
boldly disseminating among the poor
and dependent classes the doctrines OF
Nautilus. She was denounced as an in
fidel and a monster. Yet, when one
perceives the wicked, wanton con-
sciencaless reproduction of the criminal
end pauper classes it must be admitted
that she was justified. The families of
men earning a pound week are excess
sive. One sees upon the streets in the
poorer quarters of London and the large
manufacturing towns emaciated, defect
ed mothers, wheeling in a perambulator
two aenemic children. with others as
puny and wretched clinging to their
skirts. Never for one moment does
such a woman cease to consider the vital
question of bread and shelter do not
wonder that there are in the large cities
of Great Britain so great an army of
women drunkards. OF very limited nat
ural intelligence. and this little lessened
by excessive collaborating, with no CD
pOrtunity to obtain employment, and no
adequate payment for it should employ
ment be found; with no physical strength
to work with an infant continually at
the breast, and another waiting it's adj
vent into a world where it is not wanted
what wonder that they find temporary
stupefaction in gin.
THE DARK SIDE
Nor should it be matter of surprise
that one sees upon the streets of London
hundreds of gray-headed, bedraggled
creatures, degraded almost beyond the
semhlance of humanity; or that, where il
is almost impossible to obtain work and
living wages, women tuvn alike from that
servitude which the industrial condition
of Great Britain has ordained, and the
misery Of marriage, as it exists among
the poor. These are the two causes that
have promoted prostitution in London to
q degree that has hardly a parallel in
Christendom-and this is a city where
there is a church upon every corner.
and where an almost fabulous sum is set
apart from the public revenues for the
maintenance of a state religion. This;
does not mean that that church stands
by and folds its hands; it does much. but
the princely fortunes expended in costly
storation-commenda as means Of
educating the public taste and preserving
the traditions of the race-are appar-
emily much greater than that applied to
the mitigation of human want and suf-
fcrjnO