ST. HILDAS HOME.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XXI, Issue 1, 1 July 1929, Page 6

ST. HILDAS HOME.

Contributed,

St. Hilda's was started m a hurry because just when : preparations ,. were being made the influenza epidemic struck New Zealand, parents died; and children left orphans needed a- honie. To meet this urgent need a house was taken m Waipawa, across the road from St. Peter's Church and Miss Lee took charge of it as the first matron. .; • The house was not convenient for an orphanage and the big family •..of. children that was soon gathered there had a very crowded. life and the matron a very uncomfortable one ; still it was a home, if only an emergency one and the children were given every care. This practical effort of Christian charity appealed strongly to the warmhearted people of Waipawa and the surrounding district and. presents of meat and potatoes and clothes and other useful things poured m, till one felt that Waipawa as a whole regarded themselves as the foster parents of these children who had had such a tragic beginning of their lives. This willing help was very cheering to those who had started the home m faith without the money m hand to pay. the expenses of running it. A good re r sponse was made to an appeal for funds and before many months had passed the purchase of a more adequate house became possible. While the children were still m the Waipawa house Miss Waller succeeded Miss Lee as matron and began that great work which for ten years she has carried on with such devotion and success. Six months after the beginning the house at Otane was bought which has been St. Hilda's ever since, and after some necessary alterations the children were moved to their new home

The numbers grew till they reached the maximum that could be brought up as one family but to accommodate them properly some fairly extensive, and expensive, alterations and additions had to be made. When they were completed the house was really suited to its purpose and the real settled life of the Home began. It was the deliberate policy of the Chapter from the beginning that St. Hilda's should be a Cottage Home and should never grow into a big institution. The natural life for children is family life m a home and this is easier to provide if the numbers are kept small. It is natural also that boys and girls should be together, and though this is regarded by many social workers as an ideal too difficult to put into practice, it has been the rule of St. Hilda's for the ten years of its life, and with triumphant success. Miss Waller has shown that it can be done, and she has been able to do it because she is a firm believer m its value. Large as a family of 25 — 30 children may seem, those who know St. Hilda's know that it is a family, m the real meaning of the word, and as most of the children stay till they are old enough to leave, the Home really forms a spirit and atmosphere of its own. The average length of a child's stay has so far been seven years and there are still six children m the Home who came to it very young when it was still situated m Waipawa. Needless to say St. Hilda's has made a warm place for itself m the kind hearts of Otane people. Four strong garden seats bearing the inscrption "A gift from Mrs . Porter" • perpetuate ' a kind gift of £20 sent from Featherston by an old resident of Otane, and many

gifts and acts of kindness show how ready people are to .help. In 1925 a legacy of £250 permitted the addition of a most useful hospital Lay, for which Miss Daisy Watts will always be gratefully rememberd. It is «'i. bright room from which an invalid can watch the trains and the brisk life of the outdoor world. To know St. Hilda's is to love it, to feel its atmosphere and to meet the children is to be convinced that here Jindeed is a Home, a Home m which the joyous Spirit of Christ has sweetened life and made it .beautiful. It makes one think of this, child and that and wish that they could come and live here and share this life and learn what these children have so obviously learned. To know St. Hilda's is to feel that here is work that Christ would love and to long to have some share m it.