A BREEZY SALVATIONIST.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 293, 11 December 1925, Page 10

A BREEZY SALVATIONIST.

LIEUT.-COLONEL BRAY.

STORY OF HIS LIFE.

HUMAN COMEDY AND TRAGEDY. With 43 years of unflagging service in the interests of his fellow men, LieutColonel Bray, of the Salvation Army, is entering upon his well-merited retirement. He is one of the men who have done so much to earn for that worldwide organisation the high regard in which it is held by the public, by reason of its social services. Born in Australia, of Cornish-Irish parentage, Lieut.Colonel Bray is a breezy little man, with the burning eves of the zealot, the flaebing smile aud hearty laugh of the natural humorist, and the vitality to which sons of Australia's broad plains are heir. In the course of an interview with an "Auckland Star" representative this morning, he told something—necessarily but a small part—of the experiences of his 25 years in Australia and •17* years in this Dominion. He has seen the worst and the best of human nature—and has not lost faith in human nature. "No man in social service can lose faith," he says. "The torch of hope must ever "be burning bright. 'Down and out'—why, there's no such thing! A man may be down—right down—but he's not out till he's dead!" In the Mines as a Lad.

To-day Lieut.-Colonel Bray has the proud distinction of being the oldest male officer still in service produced by the Salvation Army in Australasia. Ho began life in the Soiith Australian copper mines, when he went to work a month before his eighth birthday. At eleven years of age he was turning a drill in the poisonous fumes of the mines, but at fifteen he changed his occupation, taking up work in general stores. One clay a skirmishing party of pioneer Salvationists passed through the small town in which young Bray- —then nineteen—was working. Already, with tlie religious fervour of his Cornish father, he was active in the interests of the church of his baptism, but the "Blood and Fire" slogan of the Salvation Army appealed to the fighting instincts bred in him from his mother's side, and almost immediately he became a lieutenant in "the Army." It is of interest to note that Mrs. Bray, who has been a life-long help and inspiration to this great Salvationist, was among the band of pioneers that first attracted Colonel Bray. She had been sent out by the late" ( General Booth, in 1882, with live others, at the age of 18. to help the late Major Barker plant the yellow, red and blue banner under the Southern Cross. Both Colonel and Mrs. Bray were active in the Army's work in the days when hooligans delighted to interrupt evangelical meetings, and throw flour—or worse—upon the eoldiers as they passed along the streets. Work in Chinese Dens.

In 1883, Lieut-Colonel Bray helped establish the Salvation Army in Tasmania, and from 1884 till 1887, he was engaged in rescue work in the slums of Melbourne. Chinese dens and slums abounded, and the young officer found work ready to his hand in helping girls from the back country who had gone wrong. In 1887, he was called specially to social work in Ballarat, and for the remaining 37 years he has been exclusively engaged on the social side of the organisation's work.

The Crash of 1893. Thousands lost all they had in 1893, when the gTeat Australian land boom burst. A big scheme was established by the Salvation Army to assist those who had lost their all, and Lieut.-Colonel Bray was called to take a leading part. He was placed in charge of a s'awmilling camp at Pekenham, Gippsland, and it was there that he had the saddest and most tragic experiences of his career. Brilliant men, linguists, barristers, rubbed shoulders with the illiterate and the outcast. Working on one side of a huge tree stump was a university man, who could speak several languages, and hold an assembly spell-bound with the eloquence of his expression in anecdote and story, while on the other Jamaica-born white man, unlettered, unkempt, who could fix his identity by nothing save the assertion that he was "a British object." ' There men started on 2/6 a Aveek, and worked up to 5/, over a period of ten weeks, when they reverted to 2/6, and worked up again, being pushed out to any job that happened to offer, in order to make room for other unfortunates.

Great Extensions. Becoming eocial secretary for men in New Zealand in 1908, Colonel Bray had charge of the organisation and administration of the inebriates' homes, night shelters, Working men's homes, prison j gate homes, people's palaces, private j inquiry work, police court and probation activities. The first Salvation Army home for boys in New Zealand was established at Eltham, this being for orphans and semi-orphans, and was followed by, the opening of the Island Bay home. j With the appointment of Commissioner j Richards work proceeded apace, andj Colonel Bray was given in addition to i his other duties the responsibilities of property secretary till 1920. During the j periods which covered the terms of Gom- j missioners H. C. Hodder and R. R. Hog-' gard, the greatest, extensions known in the Army's history in this country were made. Lieutenant-Colonel Bray speaks with genuine affection and esteem of the commissioners under whom he lias I worked. r Bands to Cheer Prisoners. In 1910, Lieut.-Colonel Bray -was ] J honoured, by .being appointed an official i j visitor to prisons throughout Kew Zea- I I land — a privilege conferred on few. I Three years ago, he was made a Justice j of the Peace. For 22 years before he j came to New Zealand, Salvation Army officers had been visiting the prisons in * their respective districts, but they had i not been allowed to take a band. Six ' months after Colonel Bray arrived from Australia, with a bulging-wad of letters \ testifying to his great work~among con- j victs, he obtained from the authorities | J permission for bands to visit the "aols. i This was a big thing, and has made for the cheering of many a sinking heart within grey walls. ———— I