The MANAWATU DAILY Times TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1936. Y.W.C.A. in Municipal Life

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 46, 25 February 1936, Page 6

The MANAWATU DAILY Times TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1936. Y.W.C.A. in Municipal Life

“Youth,” says King Edward Vlll, “needs three things to lit it'for tile. It needs menus, it needs discipline, and it needs opportunity. These three things are in our power.”

In modern civic life we have developed certain ideas of what is required oi. a city. It is, tor instance, a matter ol oui civic pride that there shall be no needless waste of infant life and that as far as possible the foundations of sound physical health shall be built in infancy. We also believe that a democracy can be built only by educated citizens and so wc establish a system of education that is free to all. _ But it is most important of all for a city to be concerned with its responsibility to youth. If infancy is the time of greatest physical danger, adolescence is the time of greatest spiritual danger and, therefore, organisations that have to do with the training of youth are of paramount importance.

Among these the most notable are the Guide and Scout movement, which are mostly concerned with the pre-adolescent and early adolescent years, and the Y.M.C.A. and Y.’W.C.A., which concern themselves with the training and service of young people from adolescence on to young manhood and young womanhood The sign of the triangle, red or blue, which stands for the symmetrical development of body, mind and spirit, is a familiar sight in every country of the world.

In our own city of Palmerston North the Y.W.C.A. maintains a building which is a centre of every kind of activity Club and educational work, healthy sport and recreation for of all ages and types of young women. This Association now calls upon Palmerston North citizens to respond generously to their street day on Saturday next.

The Y.W.C.A. aims at bringing the best that life has to offer to girlhood, to help her join with others in finding the best way of life—to become the best kind of woman she can De, and to help make her home, her city and her countiy the best that good womanhood and good citizenship can make them.

To train girls in the elements of good. citizenship is a splendid objective in an ago when so many influences detract from the development of the best in social and national life. So the YiW.C.A. sets about its task in a wholly understanding and practical manner. It does not seek to force its members into prayer circles and groups for religious study but takes a wider and saner view of the wholeness of life and the task of character building. By means of various club groups it brings before girls the great questions of the day by discussions and debates thus multiplies their interest, widens thenviewpoint and educates them in a sympathetic understanding of all the nations of the world as one family.