Y.W.C.A. IN SYDNEY

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12455, 25 May 1926, Page 5

Y.W.C.A. IN SYDNEY

Magnificent buildings which the Y.W.C.A. have erected upon their old site in Sydney were opened with much pomp and ceremony by Lady Stonehaven (says a correspondent). The buildings, one of the imposing features of Sydney’s new architectural era, reveal that in the good government of their organisation the Y.W.C.A. have not only brought to bear an intellectual energy, but hove displayed an aptitude for high finance. Only 46 years ago they started m a very obscure way in Sydney. To-day they have a towering property worth about £115,000, dedicated to the moral and physical welfare of young womanhood, and a very beautiful home for business girls who are alone, and are diffident about going into boardinghouses or taking rooms in the city. An imposing public hall, which will be a welcome and much-needed addition to the city’s facilities in this respect, will bring a handsome return. The fact that the Y.W.C.A. has a liability of only £38,000 odd on this huge pile, practically alongside of what will be one of the city’s biggest underground stations, says something for its enterprise. In salaries, interest on its mortgage, and rates and taxes the Y.W.C.A. will have to find about £BSOO a year, but these women are quite cheerful about it, as Jong as the public pull with them. Sydney’s architecture and in a . more elevated sense ; Sydney’s womanhood are incalculable gainers by this courageous enterprise of a body of women whose organisation had to struggle to pay the rent of humble premises not very many years ago in this city.