YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17114, 8 April 1921, Page 7

YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir, —I glad to sec that "Mother'' has touched upon a point in a recent issue in connexion with the turning away of young girls from the above well-known society's hostel. So the question now asked by girls is, "What's the use of joining, for you only get turned out? This is not,the first time it has been known to have been done, where girls are told to go who have no home or relatives to, turn to. Now is this fair? Girls who have helped to make the Home by their yearly subscriptions are told to go—for no reason but that someone else wants their rooms. And now we hear of another wellknown society, the Girls' Friendly Hostel; turning out members of some years, who for no just cause are told to go. They have no home or friends. May oe some are from the Qld Country, and have come feeling they will always find a home in the hostel,"where we understand all Home girls are told to go. They are now finaing their rooms are wanted for those who are students, who have their own hostel and parents, who are better able to keep them elsewhere, while a girl who has no parents or home has to battle alone in a room and do for herself after a hard day's work, in office or workroom, or a lonely emi§rant is unable to make her home there ecaiuse she is a domestic. Now are these societies worth subscribing to if this is how they provide for the lonely girl? It is time a new societv or hostel was, started for our homeless arid working girls.—Yours, etC '' INTERESTED. [A "Press" reporter, on acquainting Miss Baker, matron of the Girls' Friendly Society Hostel, with the nature of the allegations, contained above, was informed that the Hostel, like the Y.W.C.A ; , is primarily a home for young girls who are ■ strangers to the city. Older women should be well able to secure suitable homes or lodgings for themselves, but young girls, if left ta , themselves to find suitable lodgings, could not be expected to use the same judgment. There are 80 boarders in the Hostel, and four beds are always reserved for strangers, of whom emigrants are given . preference. Boarders are not compelled to join the Girls' Friendly Society—a Church of England institution—until they have been tliree months in residence at the Hostel. This is not a boarding-house conducted with the object of making money, but neither is it a place which can be made a convenience of simply because it provides a good home, in congenial Surroundings, at' a very moderate charge. If that were so, the primary object in establishing the Hostel would he forgotten.—Ed. '.'Press."]