AUCKLAND Y.M.C.A.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23272, 15 February 1939, Page 16

AUCKLAND Y.M.C.A.

- SECOND TO NONE VISITOR'S WARM PRAISE VETERAN SCOTTISH OFFICIAL "From reports and , •what I have already seen I think the Auckland Y.M.C.A., considering your small population, is second to none in the work it is doing," said Mr. Andrew Bell, of Glasgow-;* who arrived by the A watea on Monday from Australia in the course of a world tour. Mr. Bell has been connected with Y.M.C.A. work for 'iO years, and last September retired after 35 years' service as secretary cf the GlasgoAv association. Mr. Bell said yesterday that he had met a large number of New Zealanders and Australians in Egypt and subsequently in Glasgow during the war. He had seven hostels in Glasgow for soldiers oil leave and the maximum number accommodated in one night was 1218. It was because of the many friends he had made in those years that he hfid decided to visit Australia and New Zealand when the opportunity occurred. He was now deriving much pleasure from the renewal of those friendships.

The work of associations in Australia was also praised by Mr. Bell. He said he had visited the associations in Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, and in some of the smaller centres, and they were performing a very useful service, particularly in the physical and social fields.

Tho Glasgow association, continued Mr. Bell, consisted of seven institutes with a total membership of 3500. Glasgow being; a city with a population of 1,250,000 there was a wide scope for the association's work. He said it was his intention to devote the rest of his life to voluntary work in Scotland. However, if war occurred, he would, in spite of his 71 years, serve as he had done in the last.

. Mr. Bell, who is accompanied by his wife, will remain in Auckland a fortnight.. and then leave for a tour of the North Island and the South Island. He will leave on his return to Scotland, via Panama, in about seven weeks. v