THE SUNSHINE CLUB.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17218, 8 December 1923, Page 12

THE SUNSHINE CLUB.

A GREAT INDUSTRY. At. the present time, when there is much talk about protecting and developing our secondary industries, it would be well to direct attention to the establishment in Sydney of a great primary industrv, writes Richard Arthur. M.D. (Sydney), in the Melbourne “ Argus.” Tilts is concerned with the production of happiness, and is turning out a tremendous success, there being a steady and increasing output every week. It is felt that the Melbourne people should be given the opportunity of investing in an enterprise of so lucrative a nature, when in all probability exist as plentifully both the raw material and the workers in one city as in the other. The rawmaterial is composed of the thousands of small children who spend their waking hours playing in squalid back yards or in the gutters of the main streets in which they live. The workers are a number of girls and women with sufficient leisure to be able to devote at least one day a month to the work. The factory is situated on one or other of the harbour or ocean beaches around Sydney, and the product is days of pure ecstasy. This could not fail, for the sands of the sea-shores are the little children’s heritage. It should be the right—not to be denied—of every child to play at some time or other on the sands, to build ramparts against the advancing tide, to paddle in the waves, to search the livelong day for the treasure trove which the sea throws up, and to be dragged unwillingly at eventide from all these innocent delights.

Cannot those of us who in our early years have had this privilege cast back our minds and call to memory the halcyon days when we would have had the sun stand still to that we might finish the many roomed and highwalled mansion we had fashioned with spade and bucket, or complete our collection of shells, and seaweed, and crabs? The child who has not had this, has lost something which can never be recaptured, and its life is so much the poorer. It is difficult to believe it, but nevertheless it was found that there were numbers of children in Sydney—especially those below school age—who had never seen the sea and played on a beach, and the Sunshine Club came into being to remedy this tragedy. They were the children —mostly of large families—of men with an inconstant bAsic wage, every penny of which had to be spent on the bare necessaries of life. For such children any expenditure on innocent and helpful pleasure was out of the question. They saw with the passionate pain that can rack the child their more fortunate playmates setting for trips to the sea or the bush, while they were left to the dreariness and monotony of the pavements. The Sunshine women , determined that this should end. They banded themselves together to descend like fairy godmothers on these mean streets, and sweeping up bands of little ones, bear them off to a beach where they could rq,vel for a day. Their decision has been amply justified. Every Saturday some hundreds of children are thus entertained. They are collected in one of the poorer districts, and a number of their mothers are invited to accompany them, for often the mothers need the outing as much as their children. Reductions, are made on their carriage by train, tram, or steamer, and the public are appealed to to finance the cost of food and carriage. Permission has been given to collect on the beaches, and at Manly from £lO to £2O can be obtained on any Saturday. It is certain the same amount could be got at St Kilda or Brighton. One has only to stand and watch the children for a time to realise what a profitable investment the Sunshine Club is. Little figures in bathing costumes which the club provides are dancing on the edge of the waves or rolling in the sand, or playing games with the Girl Guides, who have offered their help. And the feeding—ye gods! It seems incredible that small bodies can get outside so much of sandwiches and tarts and fruit, and yet they do, and are all the better for it. There is also another side to the matter. This work is found to bless not only those who receive but those who give. Many a woman who has been leading a somewhat empt}'- existence, and has failed to obtain genuine satisfaction from a round of pleasure, has been afforded a new interest iii life, and has learnt “ the luxury of doing good.” She has come to acquire an insight into how the other half of the world lives, and this has broadened her sympathies, and led her to appreciate the silent heriosm of the lives of many of the wives and mothers of the working classes. In this bridging of the gulf between the various social strata and tlie mutual understanding arising from it lie the chief hope of a future free from revolution And .the coming of a golden age.