WITH AUCKLAND BOYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 134, 8 June 1929, Page 11

WITH AUCKLAND BOYS.

TWENTY-ONE YEARS' SERVICE

MR. GEORGE ADAIR HONOURED

WHAT THE RECORDS SHOW.

Viewed in the light of community service few men have made a more valuable contribution to the life of Auckland than Mr. George W. Adair, who, in the past 19 years, has had much to do with the moulding of boy life. His records show that in this city no less than (5504 boys have passed through his hands as members of the junior department of the Young , Men's Christian Association.

Mr. Adair this week completed 21 years of service as a boys' work director, and the occasion was marked by a complimentary luncheon, which was tendered by the Auckland Optimists' Club, of which he is a foundation .member. The club president (the Rev. Charles Chandler) had charge of the proceedings, which were notable for enthusiasm and lively musical expression.

In responding to the toast of the occasion, Mr. Adair told an interesting life story. One of a family of nine, he started work at the age of 11 in Perth, while his father was inland on the West Australian goldfields. He became interested in the work of the "Y," and eight years later when the family came to live in Wellington he became a member of the association. While serving his time in th 6 carpentering trade he took a keen interest in football and cricket, and in a voluntary capacity helped in the starting of a boys' department. Out of his first group of boys have since come an Australian eleven cricketer (Grimmett), four Wellington "reps.." four- New Zealand "reps.," one All Black, two Wellington "Soccer"' representatives and a New Zealand representative in the same code. "Those were among the happiest days of my 'Y" experience," said Mr. Adair, "for I spent every minute of my spare time with the bovs."

It was in 1908, at the invitation of Mr. H. N. Holmes, then general secretary, that Mr. Adair joined the staff as boys' work - director, and when, in 1010, he left for Auckland to take up work in a similar.capacity,: he thought that he could "never like boys as well as those ill Wellington. However, his first two years of work in this city gave rise to very happy memories. Then followed nine months' leave and most valuable experience in the United States. Four more years in Auckland,-and in 1917 Mr. Adair left for two years of service as a Y.M.C.A. field secretary. Since his return he has had ten years of effective service with Auckland boys, of whom he now has COO around him.

Loyalty of Boys. In the few spare moments- which Mr. Adair snatches from his busy life he has the satisfaction of keeping in touch with old boys in all parts of the world. Many have done well and hold high degrees of learning. Sonic are doctors, others ministers and some university workers in countries far removed from New Zealand.

When one deals with boys by the thousand it is not to be expected that all will remember, but it must be a tremendous satisfaction to Mr. Adair to receive the letters which come to him frequently from many parts of the world. During one year in France he received no less, than 558 letters, one mail alone producing 78. He says that nothing in life is grander than the loyalty of boys. "If we wish to help boys," Mr. Adair said, in his after-luiicheori address, "we must be sympathetic, patient and tolerant. A man's outlook on life is determined very largely between the years of 12 and 18. At least nine-tenths of our habits are formed during these impressionable years. Between a boy of 10 and a boy of 15 there is as much difference as between a tadpole and a frog. At 15 a boy is less like a boy of 10 then he is like a man of 25. We need to understand boys before we can influence them." "Faith Works Wonders."

The ideals we wished to dominate our land, Mr. Adair said, must first dominate the minds of our growing boys. Faith in boys would work won" ders. "Some people," he said, "seem to think that there are more bad boys than there are good ones. Out of a life's experience I say that a bad"boy is as hard to find as radium. There is good in every boy if we know how to find it. This is not a boy problem, but an adult problem."

Urging that we should trust boys and assume the best, Mr. Adair said that the average normal boy had a. natural liking for the spiritual, and he responded readily to the highest ideals. Any success which he himself might have had in work with boys he attributed to the fact that he was one of a large family, and had had the kind of experiences through which many boys passed, even to "playing the wag" and running away from home on at least two occasions. He attributed most, however, to the influence of his mother and to her wonderful capacity for taking the keenest interest in all that he and his boy friends did—their outdoor games, their times spent close to the heart of Nature and all that normal boys loved to do.

"In the years that have followed," Mr. Adair said, "my supreme object has been to bring the God Who love 3 to the boy who needs. This was the ideal of Christ." Mr. Adair said he trusted that he might be spared to spend many more years of service with boye.