A NOBLE WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 138, 14 June 1933, Page 9

A NOBLE WORK

BUT MONEY SEEDED ST. JOSEPH'S ORPHANAGE

■■. ."I'so. three." The tiny tot con-1 ■Hnued to suck her thumb and stared '•with whole-souled wonder at the questioning strangers. To her, they were .just "grown-ups," but grown-ups who had intruded on her Sunday play with some 220 other romping kiddies at St. Joseph's Orphanage, Upper Hutt. Knowing no parents, sho had been •taken early to the orphanage and had grown to know it as her only home— her all in all, tho twelve gentle Sisters of Mercy, for whom thero is no reward, no fee, but the knowledge that they are caring for a child with a soul, a child who might otherwise bo ( tho charge of no one in particular. 'Tho home cares for children of all denominations —indeed, nearly half are nonCatholics. Thero are 130 girls and .90 boys in the orphanage and their ages range from three to fifteen years. Tho work of the Sisters is indeed a noble- one, but money is . urgently needed, and tomorrow a street day will'be hold, affording to all an oprportunity to assist the little-known cw'ork carried on at tho orphanage. "From time to time," remarked _ a ■Sister, "we have to purchase bread instead of, as usual, baking our own, and it'costs us then over £11 a week. We "nso ovor 60 loaves a day." But perhaps the greatest and most worrying burden the orphanage has to bear is tho payment of £400 per annum in rates. "Wo do not ask for ourselves at all; we ask for the children," declared the Superior, Eev. Mother Ambrose, who, incidentally, has spent her lifetime ministering to the needs of the children. - The children remain at the orphanage until they have gained tho proficiency certificate, when, in most cases, they must leave to fend for themselves. •But they do not go unprepared. The boys are well-equipped. Whilst at the home 'they receive practical training in.most departments of farm work. , Under .the capable- supervision of a competent farm-manager they learn to milk,, by .hand and machine, the 35 ■ cows kept to provide tho''home with milk and butter (801b. of butter a week are used). ' ■Vegetable-growing, hay: making; w'oodrchopping are part of the training the lads receive: even the killing of the meat for the home is done with _ their assistance. More, they can knit, sow, and darn —accomplishments surely that, must stand to youths placed as they are in the struggle for existence. Here it may be observed that the homo derives nothing from the sale of farm produce, •for nothing is sold. Everything produped is. used and consumed. As an indication of the value p£ the home to tho State, it is interesting to. note that it is doing a share towards solving the boy'unemployment problem. On leaving the home, the boys are placed with nearby and distant farmers, all of whom, without exception, have reported their satisfaction with the boys and their work—no small tribute to the care and guidance of the Sisters. The girls, too, arc not .less fitted to take their place outside, lynitting,. sewing, cooking, and all the hundred and one accomplishments of domestic life are theirs. These, then, are; the ones who are appealing to the public of Wellington tomorrow in the •confident hope that they do not appeal in vain. *