COMMUNITY CENTRES

Grey River Argus, 20 May 1944, Page 7

COMMUNITY CENTRES

Mr Somerset at Greymouth NEED OF LEARNING |AND FELLOWSHIP The need of men and women for learning and fellowship and the way in which these could be provided by community centres were the main features of an address given at Greymouth yesterday by Mr H. C. D. Somerset, Director of the Feilding Community Centre. The meeting was presided over ,by the Mayor (Mr. F. A. Kitchingham) who welcomed Mr. Somerset and Mr. A. T. Campbell, Senior Tutor of the W. E. A. and the University Extension branch of Canterbury University College. Mr. Kitchingham said that Mr. Somerset had first become interested in the idea of community centres when he was school teaching at Oxford,' North Qanterbury, and had had an opportunity under a Carnegie Scholarship to study in the United-States, Englund, and Denmark. On his return- he had been asked to become director of the centre which was being established at Feilding. There was a development in adult education taking shape in many countries which might almost be called a community- centre movement, Mr. Somerset said. It was of special interest because all were looking forward to creating after the war a culture fit for human beings. We all belonged to the age of frustration between the two wars. At the moment there was optimism about the result of the war, and many were feeling that there would be another chance to build more truly. We organised well in manv directions, but when it .came to building a sound structure in which every man would take a part feeling that he was expressing himself and getting something of the joy of human society we were inclined to think that it would happen without giving it thought. At the end of the last war this had been realised and the adult education movement had had a great impetus, but the job had never been done generously enough to have much effect. To-day the community centre was something of an answer to some of man’s needs. . Man must know more about himself and his fellows if he was to have a world fit to live in after the war Mr. Somerset went on. Organised learning stopped at the end of the school course, and the time at school was all too short to give us a philosophy of life—the only way to get that was to live some part of life ana to came back to some group where we could learn more about ourselves. In Denmark the folk schools, a kind of people’s university attended by people between the ages of 18 and 30, had been .developed. We were faced in the future with two very great needs. One was the need 01 fellowship. Modern civilisation had tended to keep men apart rather than bring them together. We were not really man-kind any longer but isolated individuals. The kind of “come-together” in a social way was largely a' thing of the past—we went to dances, pictures an f ] the like as isolated individuals; and we suffered from this human separateness. We were dimly aware of that these days and many organisations sprang up to satisfy man’s need of fellowship, but most of them failed to do so in the long run, and a war tended to upset all’human relationships. At the same lime in camps men found comradeship and .one thing that could be put on the credit side of war was a new sense of human relationships and of depending one upon another. What was wanted was a combination of man’s need to learn with his need of fellowship. Every new de-' velopment put us a stage behind and a man educated 20 years ago was relatively more ignorant now than he was then. There was a tendency to leave things to the experts, but if the people had been better informed the present war might have been avoided. Very .often, too, we chose leaders in our democracy who prevented us from knowing. We could not have a democracy unless it was an informed 1 one. The 'community centre was designed to satisfy these two needs of fellowship and learning, said the speaker. They had begun at Feilding to do an intensive piece of adult education —something that would help the community to be well-organised and well-informed. Some people had slight contact with the centre —they went to see a play, to ask advice about a child’s work, or to borrow a book. Others were more deeply interested.' Once a week an open forum on world affairs was held, with an address and discussion. Another activity concerned the home. There were courses in child study and development. and so that mothers could come to talks at the centre there was a play centre at which children could be left. Some of the senior pupils at Feilding High School were studying child development and their practical work with children was done at the play centre. There was also a study of such subjects as home decoration, colour, how to look at pictures, food and health. Another activity centred around creative work. There was a keep fit class, a drama group with a little theatre and 60 people producing up to a dozen plavs each year, classes in writing English and short stories, and reading courses in a'ny of the subjects dealt with at the centre. Two things which the centre had done had stood out. One was a group for Looking at the stars, for which the use-of three 3in. telescopes had been obtained Second was a family film club to which parents could bring their children on Fridays nights. At this club documentary films were screened showing such things as life in a mine, on a trawler, in an aeroplane, or in a cotton mill. The centre had more the atmosphere of a club than of a school, and it was becoming a sort of focus from the social and intellectual life of the Mace. In a town of 4,500 persons 600' came regularly to the centre. The local body gave every encouragement and helped to maintain the buildings and grounds. Mr. Somerset said that at Feilding the wages of his wife and himself as directors' were naid by the School Board, and there was a small capitation grant for caretaker, heating and light The classes were free, though those attending could make a voluntary donation of un to ss. In this wav about £6O yearly was brought in which helped to buy books and other things The cost of a centre need not be great—he had pointed out that the town could have a centre for the cost of one cigarette each day from each family. The centre was on good terms with the churches, and manv clergy and church folk came to the meetings. It was a kind of new integrating work in the commumtyTn S< Asked bv Mr. L. Wick what should bp done towards organising a centre in Greymouth, Mr. Somerset suggested the setting up of a small handnicked committee to see just what the 'town had, what was being done what its needs were, and what soi t ol buildings were available. It still remained for some town to desian a functional building of its own When the committee had seen what could begone it could anneal to the local body to call a public meeting, and when, if a plan had finally been formulated an approach could be made to the Director of Education and the University Extension Department. Mr Campbell thanked all who had ■attended and promised help to any

small committee that miuht be set up. The Mayor thanked Mr. Somerset and Mr. Campbell. He thought the talk would do much to give a background of information which was necessary before specific projects be considered. He was sure the visit would bear valuable fruit.