SOCIAL SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 106, 31 October 1941, Page 6

SOCIAL SERVICE

PRESBYTERIAN WORK

A SUCCESSFUL YEAR

A successful year's activities were reviewed last evening at the annual meeting of the Wellington Presbyterian Orphanage and Social Service Association, held in St. Andrew's Schoolroom. A surplus in the revenue account pf £276 2s 7d was shown, and a balance of £1962 6s lOd has been transferred from the legacy account to the accumulated funds.

The chairman-of the general com-, mittee, Mr. A. A. Kirk, presided. The year ended on June 30 was the association's thirty-second year of service, stated the annual report. At the beginning of the year there were 59 children in the homes; 36 being admitted during the year and 30 discharged, leaving 65 in residence at June 30. Special mention was made of the services of Dr. L. A. Line, who retired from active practice recently. He resigned also from the position of honorary medical officer to the association after twenty-two years' service.

Great regret was expressed at the death of Sergeant Malcolm Crooks, R.N.Z.A.F., the first of the old boys of the Boys' Home to die for his country. He entered the home at the age of two and finally passed matriculation at Wellington College. At the outbreak of war he was engaged in accountancy work.

Now that the financial position had improved a little, partly because of the closing of the Girls' Home at Island Bay in December, 1938, and its lease to the Wellington Hospital Board, the

committee felt that urgent extensions must be made to the buildings at Berhampore if the work was to be maintained at its present level. The two [homes on the Berhampore property were accommodating more children and staff than they could adequately care for. . ' The work of hospital . and prison chaplains and the women's auxiliary were also the subject of reports. On ' behalf of the association Mr. Kirk presented Dr. Line with a writing cabinet in appreciation of his long service. | A children's song service, entitled "The Building of the Lighthouse," was given in St. Andrew's Church before the meeting, and after, the meeting in the schoolroom supper was served,