SALVATION ARMY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19459, 5 November 1928, Page 5

SALVATION ARMY.

PROGRESS IN DOMINION.

COMMISSIONER JAMES HAY'S VISIT. Tho results of the Salvation Army Self Denial Appeal, according to remarks made by Commissioner James Hay, the head of the Army in New Zealand, to a representative of The Press on Saturday, indicate that the hard times which have affected almost every part of the Dominion have affected Christchurch less than the other three main centres. Giving in round figures the results from the Armys central places in each centre Commissioner Hay said that the Cita7>Ui™ChnstchurcU> had contributed «T?£ ; Auck land, £2100; Wellington, ilSOO; and Dunedin, £IOOO. This year s record of Christchurch is about as good as its record last year. Commissioner Hay was in Christchurch on Saturday in the course of a tour of inspection, meetings, and officers' gatherings, and will be here two or three days. 'Our work is making steady progress, ' said Commissioner Hay. "We have gained more in numbers these last t two years than we did in the previous five; the Sunday Schools have made a like advance. We have opened nrteen new centres of work and have er ected 20 new buildings and established different branches of our work in them."

In Wellington, Commissioner Hay continued, they had opened a hostel tor city girls—the poorer paid ones—m a fine building originally intended tor a cabaret. Failing to get a license, the promoters of the cabaret abandoned the idea and the property fell into the bands of the contractors from whom the Army purchased it. Accommodation is provided for 45 girls in separate rooms, the charges for board and lodging ranging from 25s to 30s a week. This is the seventh or eighth established in the Dominion. The Army has just opened a boys' farm home at the Hutt, consisting of 12 acres. and providing accommodation for 50 boys. Commissioner Hay predicted that this was going to be a very fine expression of the Army's work. A fine new centre of the Army's activities has been opened in Auckland. It cost £26,000, and the people of Auckland had been very generous in their contributions. Commissioner Hay is going as far south as Invercargill, and at each centre visited he, will give his lecture on National Destroyers," which he delivered m Christchurch yesterday.