Y.M.C.A. NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8776, 4 July 1914, Page 3

Y.M.C.A. NOTES

(Contributed.) The open night in the gymnasium was a great success, accommodation being taxed to its utmost limits by interested spectators. Tho programme was interesting and varied, and the display was a fine testimony to the value of systematic training. The Y.M.C.A. Soccer Football Club has now' ten teams playing, including one in the Wednesday competition. The object of the association is ti provide xdaying facilities for all its members. June 6th.was the seventieth anniversary of the birth of the Y.M.C.A. movement. The London Central Association commemorated this by lifting their debt of £40,000. This was in no small measure due to tho public spiritedness of the- “London Daily Telegraph,” in opening its columns for a public subscription list. The stamp of approval on the work of tho Y.M.C.A. by their Majesties King George and Queen Mary, and their evident interest in what the association was endeavouring to do, in tho Metropolis, on behalf of tho “boy from tho provinces,” was a great factor in the success of London central’s great effort. Tho following is an extract from a letter received by Air Virgo from Queen Mary’s private secretary;— “Her Majesty has lately read Mr Harold Begbie’s most interesting book, ‘Tho Ordinary Man and the Extraordinary Thing,’ and also Mr Hodder Williams’s ‘Life of Sir Geo. Williams,’ and is particularly struck with tho wonderful progress which tho movement has achieved since its initiation in 1824. I am to assure you of Her Majesty’s very sincere sympathy in tho great and farreaching work of the association, which has become such a factor in our religious and social life.” Not only in London but in our Dominion public sympathy is on the side of an association which stands for the cultivation of the spiritual, moral, physical, and social sides of the, lives of men and boys. This is sufficiently evidenced by the munificent gift of £IOOO to the ' Master ton ' Y.M.C.A. This -will allow the country association to clear off all liabilities and to reequip its .rooms. The fallowing cable was forwarded to “association men” from London after tho seventieth anniversary celebration in Queen’s Hall, London:—“May’the 18th was marked with groat' enthusiasm, and attended by an immense throng.. Prince Arthur of Connaught presided, and spoke culogistically of the association and its work in London, throughout Britain and the world. Tho appeal to extinguish the debt remaining on the £240,000, London Central Building wag successful, £375,000 being realised. Congratulatory messages were received from the King and Queen, President Wilson, Queen Alexandra, the German Emperor, the Kings of Denmark:.and Norway, and the Duke of Connaught.” London Canada Association proposes bo take a party of 30 or 40 out in the fruit-raising section for a summer work-and-play camp. The boys will earn from one to two dollars per day picking berries, and in vegetable gardens, having every third hour for recreation and rest. The Young Men’s Christian Association is as wide as the world. In every land it stands for the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God. Mr J. Harry Lang, of Hyderabad. India, has finished a successful tour of the North Island. As a result he has raised £IOOO towards his student building fund. The membership of the Y.M.C.A. in New Zealand is showing a steady and healthy growth. During the months of March, April; and May over eleven hundred were added, and three new general secretaries began their work. Even greater progress was made in the enlistment and training of honorary workers for many departments. It was a strain on the Y.M.C.A. resources to furnish equipment and provide adequate supervision for tho field service marquees in. the territorial camps, hut the results justify tho cost, The young men of New Zealand understand the methods, aims, and objects of tho Young Men’s Christian Association as never before. Mr J. D. Hall, of North Canterbury, chairman of the rural work committee appointed by the National Convention of the Y.M.C.A., plans to visit America soon, and while (there will study the methods employed by the hundred or more secretaries whose attention is entirely devoted to rural work in that country. Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, the famous author of “In His Steps, or What would Jesus Do?” and other books treating of the problem of social service, will tour New Zealand in September under the management of the Y.M.C.A. The three addresses which he will deliver are entituel, “Some Results of a True Education,” “Christianity as a Force in Old and New' Ways,” and “The Main Things of Life.” Y.M.C.A. work pays. Almost every day brings a fresh testimony from some naval expert or Secretary of War, or statesman, or sociologist, or church dignitary, or captain of industry. '