THE CRECHE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 55, 4 March 1908, Page 6

THE CRECHE.

By RANGITIRA. Perhaps no one calls forth 4he common sympathy of her own sex as the mother does who is forced to leave her home daily to earn her children's bread. She, either because her husband has left her or is ill or drinks, i≤ placed between "the devil and the deep sea," as she has to face two alternatives, both bad. She may stay at home and look after her children and see them starve, or she can go out to work by the day and earn sufficient to feed them, but must leave them to the care of, in some cases, an older child, or to that f oster-inothor of the poor —the gutter, for little children do not play either in the street or on the sidepath, but in the disease-infected gutter. -is one visits various institutions for the saving of life, moru-1 as well as phywi:al, one is struck by the deep necessity [or each, hut none touch one and seem juke so necessary as the Creche which gathers in the tiny wayfarers of any ige up to v years. Children whose uothers must leave home every day to .vash, or clean, or do tailoring, and the lundred and one employments open to hem; children who, but for the kindly •;ire of the croche, would be picking dirty craps from the rubbish boxes and learnng the nether side of the moral question rum lisping babies little older than thein.."ves. it is a hideous fact, well known ;o the mother, full of the protective in.lincts of her nature, that her child canlot fail to become, in her daily unavoidibie absences, tainted with scraps of unlesirable knowledge, which, though it annot understand, μ-jrhaps, it never for;ots. As to the fear of accidents or misiaps. tho working mother lias to get used o it. und the children of the poor cerainly get strangely quick to take care it themselves and each other. They beome uncannily clever in self-preservation, md will dance before a fast horse with mpuniiy. and dash across the course of a lying tram with as little concern as an irdinary cared-for child will step out-of-loor.. The obioct of the creche is to take ■are of young children through the day. lot at niglit, and for this a charge of 6d. jften reduced to 3d, is made. Sister Hannah knows that some women would i* glad to get rid o£ responsibility sometimes, and it is the mission's object to help the mothers, not relieve them of what Nature intends them to have, so every child goe , " home at night and on Sunday. The creche gteps in only when

the mother is forced to leave her chiJd for some hours of every day. Chiefly among the many objections to the forced absence of mothers from morning to night is this—the child looses what nothing can replace, the presence of its mother, through nearly all of its waking hours. When she * does come home at night, fagged, ill, perhaps cross i from weariness, it is time to cook the evening meal and put a child to bed,, while in the morning all she has time to do is to hurriedly get the children's clothes on, no time for bathing, grve them their breakfast, and leave them—to the mercy of God, if ever a remnant of belief is in her, if not, to the tramcar, the butcher's liorse at corners, and, in any" case, to the corruption which lurks in poor tenements and slums, and, also, in our widest streets. The one help to these mothers who are forced to work away from home is the Creche—a blessed invention, well -worthy of our stray coins and groceries. Throe parts of the distance up Grey-street, on the left side, stands a plain cottage like its neighbours, but bearing the sign of everlasting charity, the cross of the Mission of the Good Shepherd. The house stands on an abruptly sloping grassy bank, at the bottom of which is the Creche proper —a cottage with a kitchen, sleeping room fitted with wooden cots and grey blankets, and a ' playing room or day nursery, where the I children have thrir meals in wet or bad 1 weather. Outside, under a thick awning, stands a long table and forms, and here on every day and in all weathers but impossibly bad, live the babies, ranging j from infants in arms to children of five years. The spot, considering the locality, is marvellously fresh and sunny, Jhe cMI-

dren roll on the grassy bank and play together happily, under the eye of a nurse, who puts them to sleep in the morning, superintends their meals, and looks after them generally, under the tender guidance and experienced supervision of the sisters. All the children, and they number daily from 20 to 25, look happy, well fed, and have that 'loved and eared'-for" look so conspicuous by its absence in most of the children who tremble and cry in the streets. Clad (if necessary) in the Creche clothing, bathed (if necessary) in the Crecho bathroom, and fed on nourishing, simple food so necessary for children, these bonny bairns of women whose circumstances arc so often tragic, bear witness to the home love and care given them daily, or almost daily, for they do not always come, by these women so nobly obedient to the command "Feed My lambs." The Creche, while fulfilling its primary object of caring for children in their mothers' absence, in every way—morally and physically—and in keeping them happy, does a better work—it brings many a desperate, heartbroken, and untaught woman into touch with women able to sympathise, advise, help, and guide them. Women experienced in sorrow, tender through knowledge, and trained in matters of health, so that they can treat sickness, call in the mission doctors when necessary, give sound advice in domestic affairs, and watch over girls and young friendless often deserted women who, but for their wise guidance, would sink beneath the verge of that dark flood lapping round the feet of all poor women in towns. Through the trials of maternity, where ignorance means the death of many infants, the Mission Sisters lend, a -willing

hand, and their threefold knowledge, learnt in the houses of the poor, in the' Church, and from the doctor, combined with good education and world-wisdom, fit them to be friends in disaster to life's unfortunates. In that cottage, packed in closely byhouses, a restful peace dwells, which is reflected in the children's faces, and in those of their protectors, and without a doubt these waifs are unconsciously learning lessons for life which cannot fail to help them to grow up with a knowledge of two tilings. They are receiving an elementary knowledge of God, and an intimate knowledge of good women. No wonder they cling round the Mission Sister and yield quick obedience to her wishes. In [that small spot, windswept by neighbouring poplar trees and pines, they are receiving a birthright which otherwise they would be cheated of by harsh circumstances. Women bring children from Ponsonby, Grafton-road, and Parnell, before going to work perhaps in Remuera or Mt. Eden, and they gladly wark these long distances so that their children may be cared for so well. -" The Creche is kept up solely by subscriptions and gifts of clothing and groceries. The itra-desmen are very generous, and the Creche has funds, but it has hard times, a struggle to pay its rent and gas bill, and its power is limited for want of more subscribers, but it boldly goes its way and does its work, regardless of the idle money in thoughtless pockets. Probably it is doing a wider-reaching work than other institutions, because it gets at the heart of trouble, and helps it in so practical a way. It is with the poor and of the poor.