Salvation Army in Melbourne.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 110, 11 July 1885, Page 6

Salvation Army in Melbourne.

The "Argus " says: — " unimpeachable testimony to the good work being done by the Prison-gate Brigade branch of the Army ie borne by the Chief Commissioner of Police, whose officers are naturally fully acquainted with the operations of this reforming agency. Mr Chomloy says that the Prison-gate Brigade is rendering very satisfactory service to the community, and that though some apparently reformed characters lapse into evil courses, there is a large number of cases of permanent reclamation. The Salvation Army's method is not a very scientific one, but it is based on sound practical sense. The discharged prisoners are met at the prison gate, and are induced to go to the Army's homes by officers who have themselves been criminals, ami who can speak from personal experience of the advantages of the treatment they are offering. Placed in a position which leads to respectable employment, and removed from the danger of having to resort to crime to support life, the discharged prisoner in whom the criminal taint is not hopelessly ingrained has every chance of making a new start in life. It seems that during the last two years the Salvation Army has thus helped 1,600 men, and found good situations for a tair proportion of them. This class of outcast, there is little reason to doubt, could not be so successfully reaohed by any other organisation."