Here are two typical cases: In one of the suburbs some charitably-disposed people came across a family who had come from England, and who were living in a destitute condition in a whare.
There was scarcely any furniture in the hut, they had no mattresses to lie on, and their only bed-covering consisted of a few ship's rugs.
They had been without food for two days, and the last money earned by the husband had been spent to buy food for the baby.
In the other case of another family that had come from the South Island it was ascertained that they had sold practically all their belongings, and were almost starving.
The husband had got a few days' work here and there.
He was willing to do anything, and had earned a little money washing bottles and in driving an express when the regular driver was laid up through illness.
These people were thoroughly respectable, and in one instance well educated.
In the city itself not a day passes without some poor wretch, generally ill-clad, coming to the door of one's house selling such articles as plants or postcards in the attempt to earn an honest crust.
• Probably the most costly game of cards on record (says Mr Thornton Hall, author of a newly-published book, "Roads to Riches") was that in which the late Mr George McCulloch, chairman of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, was the loser.
The famous Broken Hill silver mine, which has since yielded millions of pounds, had recently been discovered by an Australian boundary rider, and a syndicate of seven, of whom Mr McCulloch was one, had been formed to finance the working of it.
One day, while sitting in a tiny shanty at the foot of Broken Hill, McCulloch offered a fourteenth share in the mine to a young miner named Cox for ₤200.
Cox would only offer ₤120, and after much haggling it was decided to settle the dispute by a game of euchre, the terms being that if Cox won he was to get the share for ₤120, if McCulloch won he was to be paid ₤180 for it.
McCulloch lost; and for the ridiculous sum of ₤120 Cox became owner of the share, which, only six years later, was valued at ₤1,250,000. - ODT 11, 26.6.1909.
