FOR CHARITY’S SAKE

Grey River Argus, 16 October 1936, Page 4

FOR CHARITY’S SAKE

ACTION. BY UNEMPLOYED MEN VOLUNTARY WORK FOR WORTHY CAUSE. (Special to “Argus.”) WELLINGTON, October 13. ’ The Wellington office of the State ! Placement Service recently was asked if it could supply six men who were willing to work without pay. Such a request was of course unique, but when information regarding it was displayed on the notice board every one of the fifty-odd men assembled at the Placement office volunteered for the job. The call came from the Missionary sisters of the Society of Mary, whose wonderful self-sacrificing work at the leper station on the island of Alakogai in the Fiji group is so well known to residents of New Zealand. This religious community has built, on the somewhat steep slopes off Bolton Street and Aurora Terrace, an inslitu- • lion for tlie training of girls for religious and nursing services, and a resthouse for the nurses who need to reeti- ‘ penile after a period of the arduous work involved at Alakogai. On the Bolton Street section is a gully that needed filling in, aud the work upon which the volunteers were to be engtiged consisited in wheeling to the gully a large quantity of heavy boulders to assist in the filling-in process. The City Engineer lent six wheelbarrows, and the six men selected for the task were soon energetically engaged. It was a full morning’s work and when it was completed the men found that a local hotelkeeper had sent them a very substantial dinner, rhe action of these men, and of the others who were so ready to volunteer for the work, is the more praiseworthy because most of them have been out of regular work - for long periods. When the call came, they subordinated their own needs in order to help those gallant women who are doing such no'ble. work for their ■st lie ken fello w-erea t u res.