HELPING HAND MISSION ANNIVERSARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11200, 21 October 1899, Page 3

HELPING HAND MISSION ANNIVERSARY.

The 14 th anniversary of the Helping Hand Mission (Freeman's Bay) will be held to-mor-row in the Choral Hall, when the three services of the day will be taken respectively by the Revs. W. Ready, F. Warner, and C. C. Harrison. Special hymns will be sung by 400 children, accompanied by an orchestra. On Monday the annual reunion will take place, when tea will be served in the anteroom of the Choral Hall from five to seven p.m. At the after-meeting the Mayor (Mr. D. Goldie) will preside, and the annual reports will be submitted, musical selections rendered by the Maori boys from Three Kings College, and addresses delivered by various gentlemen. Sister Kenneth will recount some of the year's experiences at this gathering The Helping Hand Mission is a household word in the province. During the year which has just closed, the various branches of mission work, social and religious, we learn from the annual report for 1898-9, have been kept in hill operation. The Rev. Colin C. Harrison, the missioner appointed by the last Wesleyan Methodist Conference, took charge of the mission in May last on the departure of the Rev. Wm. Sinclair, to take charge of the Dunedin Central Mission. Mr. Harrison soon got hold of the various departments of work, having had considerable experience of mission work. In addition to five years spent in conducting evangelistic services under the direction of the Rev. Thomas Chapmaness, ofthe "Joyful News" Mission, Mr. Harrison laboured in the Hull and Leeds centres. Among the departments of work are open air, evangelistio, benevolent, rescue, mothers' meetings, work and help, tent mission, Sun-day-school, Prohibition League, Christian Endeavour tract distribution, "Sunshine," visitation, Young Crusaders' band, and cottage meetings. The following statistics show the scope and varioty of the organisation's operations:— hundred and ninety evangolistio services have been held, 218 out-door meetings conducted, 52 mothers' meetings attended, 20 temperance meetings organised, 15,000 Joyful News sold, 41,000 tracts distributed, and over £68 distributed in relieving the distressed. Sister Kenneth, attached to the mission, has a good deal to do in the way of rescue work and social reform. The receipts of the year are £84 10s lid, which has been expended in special cases, and on food, firing, boots, medicine, nourishment, funeral expenses, rent and lodging for the friendless, fares to gumfields, etc. In addition Sister Kenneth has distributed scores of bundles of old clothing. A branch mission has been established in Newton.