YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXX, Issue 8428, 19 April 1906, Page 7

YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

Its Useful Work in Sydney.

[Contributed to Evening News.)

The popular idea of what the Young Women's Christian Association is, and what it does, is rather an unpopular one. This paradox is easily explained. For hundreds who know and appreciate the wide Held of useful work covered by the Y.W.C.A. there are thousands who regard its methods with suspicion, as belonging to the cult of the severely pious. Admiration for what is good is as old as human nature. We all cast eyes of fearful wonder on the occasional pilgrim who sets his feet resolutely on the steep and narrow way. Possibly, with Lot's wife in his memory he caii stiffen his neck, and avoid the danger of looking back during the whole of that upward climb. If he be genuine he has the best wishes of the most hardened Philistines.

But even Backsliders, who yawn when the sermon is dull, or the prayers over long, are growing rather hypercritical in sifting the Pilgrim's motives. Does he falter ever so little, we are ready to pounce on his hesitating steps. He is not quite so good as be appeared to be! To us, who are far below in the dusty hurly-burly, there is even a grain of comfort in this reflection. Perhaps, in some vague fashion, the Y.W.C.A. has become to many of us—mere Philistines stumbling along as best we can —an embodiment of the female Pilgrim, who wears a long face and a scrape-back coiffure. An extremely good, but not attractive personality. An organisation which provides a she'ter, to which (in our heathen darkness) we humbly hope that the cruel law of necessity may never drive us.

Cold charity, flinging a tract, a prayer book, and a scanty meal at our unworthy heads. Young Women's Christian Association ! The very name is a stumbling block to the faint-hearted. Lot us take our courage in both hands, and face the Y.W. C.A. in the luncheon hour. There is safety in numbers.

THE RESTAURANT. The new and handsome building which stands in Castlereagh-street—between Park and Market-streets--might well bear the revised legend above its portal—"Abandon prejudice all ye who enter here." It is bright and airy, and fitted up with every modern convenience. Cheerfulness is the impression of the stranger who stands for the first time on its wide threshold. Troops of well-dressed girls are coming in to lunch. Some have neat baskets or little handbags, which contains, who knows? -perhaps the home-made scones or sandwiches, that are to be " assisted" by a cup of tea or a glass of milk. The restaurant is conducted on business lines. But the advantage is all on the side of the person who pays —an agreeable variation of the general rule. For one penny the cup of tea or glass of milk is to be had. And the yirl who brings her own lunch feels that she is as welcome as her friend, who orders it. The bill of fare is sufficiently varied to give everyone a good choice. A plate of meat (hot or cold) is threepence ; vegetables a penny. The tariff gives each item separately —a penny being the coin most in evidence. The restaurant is open daily, Sundays and holidays excepted, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Hut lunch is from 12 to 2 p.m. One of the special inducements which attaches to the Y.W.C.A. restaurant is the fact that there is a comfortable restroom, in which the girl who has a little spare time may sit and write a letter, or read the illustrated papers and magazines provided for the use of visitors.

THE BOARDING-HOCSE. One of the most important branches of the Y.W.C.A. in Castiereagh-street is the board-ing-house. The personnel of the stall is another obvious contradiction of the popular idea of gloomy goodness falsely associated with the work done by this splendid organisation, in which noble women devote their lives to lighten the burdens of others less happy than they. In the general secretary, Miss Heard, the committee have been so fortunate as to secure the enthusiastic cooperation of a charming Irish lady, who has had a wide experience of a similar kind in England and Ireland. The assistant secretary, Miss Still well—a Master of Science, by-the-way, and a laughing girl-seems to find the Y.W.C.A. rather conducive to a lighthearted gaiety. Where are the serious pilgrims of the scrape-back hair ? Amongst the missing ! They have no connection with the Y.W.C.A.

The Lady Superintendent, Mrs Sutherland, by her gentle kindness and tact, has succeeded in winning the affection of every resident. So popular is the boarding-house over which she is " mother " that a vacant room is becoming an exceptional thing. What are known as " visitors' rooms," being reserved for those who are only in Sydney for a short time, are engaged long before the date for which they are required. For the Easter holidays all these rooms have been taken weeks ago, at terms from 16s to a guinea a weefc. For boarders, however, the terms, which include, every thing, range from 12s 6d to 16s a week, the price depend ing on the floor or situation of the room. Bright and aiiy, comfortably furnished, the bachelor girl who lives at the Y.W.C.A. has a good library, and tb« use of several sittingrooms. She has also a privilege which considerably lessens her expenses—every facility to laundry her things. The girl who likes to look fresh and dainty, in light blouses and summer skirts, need not fear a heavy washing bill. She can, if she wishes, becoma her own laundress—a maximum of comfort at a minimum of cost.

THE EMPLOYMENT AGENCY. In this brief sketch of the Y.W.C.A. only a passing glance can be given at its employment agency. Here the servant question may be studied. In New Zealand this problem has long been settled by every other woman doing her own housework without hired help, or with the aid of the occasional charwoman, who " looks in" for a day a week. There can be no worry where nothing is expected from the evanescent servant girl. The New Zealand man has also been educated up to the situation. He can, and does, lend a willing hand in his household. He takes the broad view that it is a manly thing for a man to lend his strength

to help a woman—particularly when that

man is his wife or daughter. The editor of iSa leading New Zealand paper, a man who is a keen golf player, and " manly" in the most athletic sense, told the writer that he and his wife had made up their minds many years ago that the servant had in a general way ceased to exist. Her occasional appearance in a fleeting, intermittent fashion was, therefore, to be depreciated as an intrusion. The weekly charwoman and the laundry filled the gap. He, the mere man, took his share. Every morning—he was rather proud of it—he raked the ashes out of the stove, made the fire, and, " in fact," said he, laughing, " I am the generally useful man about the place when lam at home. My boy has to do his share before he goes to school -he understands that it is his privilege to help his mother. He is none the worse, I think !" The boy in question had recently passed a University exam, with honours, and could play foottall with any lad of his age in New Zealand. Yet he thought it an ordinary thing to sweep and dust his bedroom and make his own bed, set the breakfast table, etc.

In Australia we still hanker for servants. jfjk We deceive ourselves by believing that they exist. How far the incompetent and ever " giving notice" maid is of service let the average housewife say from her experience

of broken crockery, dusty corners, and evenings out.

" Briefly, what is the servant question as you know it in the Y.W.C.A. Employment Agency?"

" Simply this: We have fifty or sixty applications for cvory twenty or thirty servants we can really recommend. And even these don't generally keep in their situations for any lougth of time. Australian girls like to bo always changing—that I think is part of tho trouble. Though, of course, the supply of competent servants is not in any proportion to the demand. We can't get them ! Factories and shops attract a very large number of girls. They seem to dislike domestic work of any kind, and one can't help wondering how the majority of them will manage when they get homes of their own."

A point that cannot be too strongly emphasised is this. The Y.W.C.A. is absolutely unsectarian. Creed is not known in so far as its work is concerned.