RESUME OF POSITION

Wairarapa Daily Times, 13 May 1932, Page 6

RESUME OF POSITION

WORK OF T,KE Y.M.C.A. REPORT TO TRUST. Last year when the Mastc-rton Y.M.C.A. was in sore financial straits an appeal was made to the Trust Lands Trust. .Recognising, that the Y.M.C.A.’s work amongst tne boys was largely of an educational character Trustees increased the grant to £l5O and promised to consider the granting of further assistance should the organisation show that it could live within its income. In order to acquaint Trustees of the manner in which the grant had been utilised and the nature of the work carried out Messrs. A, E. Bate, geneiai secretary, H. M. Peacock, director, and \V. Campbell, treasurer, of the Y.M.C.A., attended a meeting of the Trust Lands Trust last night. A balance-sheet submitted for the year ended 29th February, 1932, showed a. debit bank balance of £215/17/11 but also that over the past twelve months the receipts exceeded expenditure by £34/17/4. Mr Peacock, who was the first speaker, said he wished first of all to thank the Trustees for their help and interest. He also wished to render an account of their stewardship and place before the Trustees something of the work they were doing. The work or the Y.M.C.A. in the past few years, said Mr Peacock, had altered considerably. The importance of work was steadily increasing. Recent events had shown that moral training alone was not sufficient. “We try,” said Mr Peacock, “to make decent citizens of the boys and to give them high ideals.” The Y.M.C.A. was undenominational and nonpolitical. Many boys were living today in homes where the conditions were bad. Many of the- boys had nowhere to go but on the stieet, MY Pea cock said he was struck by the fact that the Dominion had been built up by men of the highest moral principles. If they were to get the same standard of citizen in the future as in the past they would have to train the boys. The Y.M.C.A. was not dealing with a small group of boys but went out into the streets to endeavour to get every boy who needed its influence. Mr Bate said that there were some phases of the Y.M.C.A, which did not appear in the reports. He gave the Trustees a resume of the work done. Mr Campbell, in referring to the balance-sheet, stated that the position had been improved to the extent of £232 in the past twelve months. When they came to the Trust last year their total indebtedness was £450 but at the close of the past financial year it was down to £2lB. This year's estimates provided for a further reduction in expenditure and with the Trust’s help this year again they hoped to be able to balance the budget. In answer to a question by the chairman, Mr Peacock said the Y.M.C.A. still required the Trustees’ support financially and on as liberal a scale as they thought the work was worth, Mr R. Krahagen' said that the directors of the Y.M.C.A. were to be congratulated on what they had done to improve the position. Other members spoke in a similar strain.