BUILDING CITIZENS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 173, 19 April 1937, Page 14

BUILDING CITIZENS

Work of Wellington Boys’ Institute SERVICE TO COMMUNITY •■For over 50 years the Wellington Bovs’ Institute has provided facilities for the boys of the community, healthy, sporting and educative activities calculated to improve their’ spiritual, mental, moral, social and physical condition, and make them into good citizens,” states the director’s report to be submitted to the annual meeting ot the institute to-night. "The boys ot Wellington have been attracted _by cricket, football, gymnastics, boxing, model building, boot repairing, engineering, library, brass band, orchestra, Bible study, educational classes, indoor games, woodwork classes, and boy scouting, to come and spend their spare time in an uplifting manner instead of wasting it on the streets. “For some years past the steady drift of the working-class families from the city area to the outlying suburbs has engaged the institute s attention, and it has been resolved to follow this movement by extending the institute's field of endeavour. After careful consideration the south-eastern districts, particularly Miramar, have been chosen as the first territory in which to offer institute facilities. "The first, and almost only, hurdle to surmount is, of course, financial. The interest of the district has already been awakened by the formation o( several cricket teams which have been taking part in the Boys’ Cricket Association’s competitions throughout the 1936-37 season. The materials, practice nets, match wickets, have al] added to our annual expenses, but the additional numbers of boys who are being kept off the streets are our recompense.” ‘The S..A. Rhodes Home for Boys under the supervision of the matron. Mrs. Happen, had been full throughout the year. This was not a hostel but a home in which boys from the country who were apprenticed to trades and city boys without their own homes were housed, fed and cared for at a charge from 7/6 upward according to the wages earned by the boy. Boys of alt denominations were equally welcome, but it was a rule of the home that all Protestant boys must attend the morning Bible class whieli was held in the building every Sunday, while boys of the Catholic faith were expected to attend their own church. The members of the ladies’ auxiliary, In whose hands the supervision of the work of the boarding establishment lay, were heartily commended for their valuable assistance given during the year.

“In reviewing the work of the past year.” concludes the report, “we are conscious that much of its success is due to the generous assistance given both in time and money by the public of Wellington but of the Dominion. To members of the management committee and the ladies’ auxiliary, and to all honorary workers who have given up their leisure time to take charge and assist in the various activities, the staff and boys express their deep appreciation, and to all who have subscribed in -money or kind we offer our sincere thanks.”