UNSELFISH SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18026, 27 February 1922, Page 8

UNSELFISH SERVICE.

♦ . THE YOUNG CITIZENS' LEAGUE PUBLIC INTEREST GROWS. SOUTHERN ORGANISATION. "I was encouraged to note among all classes of the community a great and growing interest in the work of the Young Citizens' League," said Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., president of the league, on Saturday. Mr. Cutten has just returned from Wellington, whew, although he was engaged in official duties, he found time to assist in organising the work of the Wellington Young Citizens' League. Mr. Cutten said that when the delegation from the Auckland League visited Wellington some weeks ago : there had been some difficulty in arranging for the requisite financial support, but this difficulty had now been entirely ovorcome, and several prominent business men had promised whatever financial aid might be required. The work of the league in Wellington was now on a Bound business footing, and an excellent organising secretary had been found in Mr. R. W. Porter, who was formerly chief postmaster at Invercargill. ~ In Christchurch the league wa s well under way, the acting honorary-secretary, Mr. Charlewood, having given encouraging accounts of the inauguration of the working of the league and the interest it was arousing in every quarter. In answer to a. question as to the attitude of the Government toward the work of the league, Mr. Cutten said -that ho had -seen the Director of Education, who had assured him that the Education Department was profoundly interested in the league, and the Education Gazette had recommended it for the favourable consideration of the teachers. Co-operation in Education. "Our paper, the Young f Citizen, is now finding its way into the schools and the homes?' said Mr. Cutten, "and in this way i$ creating a link between the teachers, the children, and the parents. That is at it should be. We must have co-operation between these three if education is to fulfill its real purpose, which, it Reems to me, i s the training of the whole man so that the child, when it grows up, can best realise its individuality in the service of God and man." Asked as to how far the league was assisting in the ethical side of education, Mr. Cutten explained that the league's pledge was, "I promise on my honour to do my best day ny day in thought, word, and deed to become a true and. worthy citizen." This in reality meant that the members promised to do their best to fit themselves for doing their duty in that state of life to which in after years they might be called. They were trained in the ideals of service, in the ideals of Christianity. They were trained in habite of reverence for all that was true, and honest, and pure, and of good report. The, league supported all movements such as the boy scouts, Y.M,C.A., and other organisations, which inculcated similar ideals. Mr. Cutten said that all thinking men were becoming profoundly convinced that the real remedy for the strife and unrest of the present day lay in tha development of character, and he drew attention to the words of Mr. Elihu Root, one of the delegates to the Disarmament Conference, who said that hatred and strife and war would never cease until men leamt to exercise kindly consideration, brotherly affection, and unselfish willingness to sacrifice for others. The Young Citizens' League aimed at fostering these qualities in the young, so that the children of today might, when thoy grew up, live in a happier and better world than our own generation had known Work ol Similar Organisations. "It is wonderful," said Mr. Cutten, "to observe that throughout the Englishspeaking peoples there is an awakening to tho fact that only by character training of the people can true progress be made. There is in England a Juvenile Organisations Committee, formed at the instance of the Homo X)ffice, for the purpose of encouraging, co-ordinating, bringing into closer co-operation, and extending the activities of the various organisations which are working for the welfare of children and young people. This committee came into being almost simultaneously with the formation of a Young Citizens League in New Zealand, is working on precisely similar lines, and it is very remarkable ta note that in Mr. Vivian Rees' book, 'The Makers of Tomorrow,' may be found almost the identical words used by the promoter of the Y.C.L. in forwarding its work. "The institution in Great Britain is doing marvellous work, and the organisations under its control have a membership exceeding 1,000,000. Mr. Bruce Mabin, who lately returned from America and Canada, where as a member of the Y.M.C.A. he was investigating young people's welfare work, informs mo that in those countries, and particularly in Canada, work on similar lines to those of the Young Citizens' 'Leagues is making magnificent progress, and evokes a wider interest than any other branch of community work."