FROM BACK O’ BEYOND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20323, 3 February 1928, Page 12

FROM BACK O’ BEYOND.

JOYOUS JAUNT FOR CHILDREN. (From Octr Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January 26. About 80 youngsters from the arid and remote west of New South Wales have been having the tinje of their voung and lonely lives in Sydney, under the benign guidance of an organisation which makes the children from the back o’ beyond their special care. Many of the youngsters had not even seen a train before they set out on their long journey to the city. , This annual jaunt is a fine phase of that practical religion which seeks to bring heaven, so to speak, down to earth, instead of setting it up as something to be attained in a future life. Advantage is taken of the occasion, not only to «ve these youngsters contact with civilisation and a treat at the seaside, but also to take stock of their health. Forty of them, for example, have had necessary teeth extractions, 23 have had tonsil or adenoid operations, six have attended one of the big eye hospitals, and others are seeing ear, nose, and throat specialists, free of charge, of course. Sydney has a warm corner in its heart for these outback kiddies. A few months ago, the Bush Church Aid Society appealed, through one of the papers, for £SO, in order co bring down to a Sydney specialist a little chap on the other side of the Queensland border who was threatened with total blindness. It not only got the £SO immediately, but, like manna from heaven bearing the sweet fragrance of true charity, money poured into it from all quarters. The boy is back home today, at Bigdingara," or some such place, with the sight of one eye restored.