THE WORST AND BEST

Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1925, Page 3

THE WORST AND BEST

LIFE OF social WORK. WKM.INGTON, Dec. 9. Service- before self i.s the ideal ot Rotary. “He serves most who serves ,>est." the motto reads. It was particularly appropriate, therefore, thac .it yesterday s luncheon of the Wei- ■ ingtoii Rotary Club, the guest of lion,m- should have been Lieut.-Colonel Bray, of the Salvation Army, bearing ,vi l 1 1 him the motto ot the organisation: “Save to Serve." He carries the distinction ol being the oldest Salvation Army active officer raised ‘,v the organisation beneath the Southern Cross, and has been responsible ,u a great measure for many social reforms which have during the past forty years been effected in Australia and New Zealand. During that long period of service to humanity, Lieut.-Colonel Bray has seen almost every phase of life, rubbed shoulders with all classes, and has studied human nature in its multitudinous aspects.

“I have seen the tragedy and the comedy of life." he said, when relating to Rotaries some of the many experiences of his earlier days in the ranks of the Army. And truly he has. for among his reminiscences are some intensely human incidents which have served to hying him into rlowr touch

with life, and facilitate tile execution of bis wide .-pbetv ot duties. RELIGION AND SERVICE, ft was ill 1383 that this now groat Army officer then a youth of 19—was standing in the doorway of a small shop in a little Australian town, and a skirmishing party of the Salvation Army | assed. The commanding officer asked : “How would you like to in service like this for good!'" That was the coaimci.. ineiit- of a great career of religious and social service, culminating with Lieiit-Colnncl Brays ascension to the head ot the Army ii: New Zealand. It. was not till the activities of the Salvation Army extended to Australia that it "as recognised that religion mis inseparably bound with social service. Then it was that be. in the

early days of bis service was placed on the uplift of the social community. TEST OF MANHOOD. How well lie lias accomplished the task set him is well know n. He claimed little credit for himself, and gave generously to others, paying tribute to the best that he found in' everyone with whom be came into contact. The days of the penal settlements in Australia wore days of turmoil and strife, but out of the tangled mass of the worst and lest in humanity there has been derived a well ordered social system, and many can lay their success at the door of tbese pioneering social workers. In the early days, when the Melbourne land boom occurred, and indus-

try collapsed with drastic consequences for every class ot the community. Lieut-C'ojnnol Bray saw. working side bv side, the highest and the lowest in tiie land. It was then that the good in men was discovered. Those who could laugh at their misfortune- were the ones who? won through. SUCCESS AND FAILURE. • Great credit was given hy the speaker to Sir John Findlay and the effect of the Reformative Institutions Art. ns a result of which the method in the social' system had undergone such a change’that it was now far and away ahead of that in the land across the Tasman. Some of the incidents told hy LicutColone! Bray were amusing, some touching in their tragedy, others_ stirring in their courage—-each throwing a lierht upon a different side of nature. Some of the boys who bad been in his control were now in Pentridgo Gaol, others were at the bead of big Australian business establishments, while between, the good effects of the early social activities of the Salvation Army were still being impressed upon SUPf?glins humanity’.-