MEMORIAL HUT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19459, 6 April 1933, Page 10

MEMORIAL HUT

WORK OF Y.M.C.A. IN FRANCE. Work will be started by the Y.M.C.A. shortly towards the establishment, at Wellington, of an association hut, to be devoted to the service of boys and young men. says a Christchurch report. The project had its beginnings while Mr J. L. Hay was supervising secretary of the Young Men’s Christian Association in France, and it will be completed during his term of office as national president of the association in New Zealand. At the end of the Great War, before their demobilisation, the companies cf the New Zealand Division, together with other New Zealanders in camp in England, subscribed £I2OO towards the establishment in New Zealand of a memorial to the war work of the association. In this way they hoped to show their appreciation of the association’s services during the war years. The trustees are Sir Andrew Russell, Mr Hay and the treasurer of the association’s national committee. The fund has now accumulated to an amount which it is considered will meet the cost of erecting and equipping the hut. One proposal is that it should be built in Petone in order to serve the boys and young men of the thickly-populated industrial areas of Petone and Lower Hutt.

Mr Hay said that the building of the hut was one of the principal reasons why he had accepted the office of national president. As supervising secretary of the New Zealand Young Men’s Christian Association in France and later, during the demobilisation period, in London, he was naturally interested to see the end of a work of which ne had also seen the beginnings. ANNOUNCEMENT PREMATURE. “NOTHING FINALISED.” By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON. April 4. Referring to a Christchurch telegram concerning a proposed Y.M.C.A. hut for boys. Mi R. M. Brasted, National Secretary of the Association, says the announcement is a trifle premature. The subject was discussed at the national convention of the Y.M.C.A. at Christchurch, but it was not decided where the hut should be erected. The idea was to erect a hut on the lines of those used during the Great War for boys’ work, it being considered that there was scope for this class of work between Petone and Hutt. Nothing was finalised at the convention, however.