THE HOMELESS GIRL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 785, 7 April 1910, Page 3

THE HOMELESS GIRL.

IN WELLINGTON. She is very much to he. pitied, the young girl who comes to Wellington to work in an office, or in a shop, "or to prepare for some career, and who has 110 home to go to. Of course, sho must iind lodgings at once, and only, those who have tried it, know what a long hunt that often requires, and how unsatisfactory are the results. Sho advertises for ft home, and of the replies she receives, probably the larger proportion are unsuitable with regard to position, condition, or terms, and when she visits the ones that sound most attractive, the chances are really against her finding what she wants. For what does she want? Her requirements are reasonable enough, a quiet, orderly home, good, simple food, clean, well-ventilated, if small, bedroom. The home she wants must be near a tramline, and not approached only by fearsome, dark, solitary roads or paths, for the girl who must not; depend on having an escort provided for her When she goes home" late in the evening. And, above all, it is necessary that the people of the house should bo respectable, and that the other boarders should be respecting. The girl whose work brings her away from home to board in Wellington, has probably iiever in her life before had to fend for herself. She is not prepared either to stand up for her rights, or to bo on the defensive, and she may very easily find herself unpleasantly situated through her very want of worldly knowledge. One only needs to hear business girls or office girls talk _ about the different homes they have lived.in in Wellington to realise v what an amount of unpleasantness the average girl has probably had to put up with. By unpleasant, one does not mean sensational, cxperienc&j..- No doubt in every city one could hear about , these, but the average girl meets more often with experiences that are merely uripleasaut. . Sho changes her lodgings frequently, from bad to better, • and perhaps back again to worse, , and when at last she thinks she is happily settled, the people of the house decide to live in Auckland, or their married daughter and her children come down to share their house; and once more the working girl is the homeless girl, once more she goes on the deadly round, searching for lodgings, once more she settles into a new home with a heart half half hopeful. _ Boardinghouselife is not good for girls. Rome of them, of course, are charming in any circumstances, but speaking generally the constant contact with, strangers has a hardening influence.- It is apt to rub off sorao of the delicacy of feeling, and to develop a certain selfishnes.9—though girls are not so liable to this as the men "who board—and it most certainly develops cynicism. The happiness of the girl who lives at a boardiiijhouse is. largely affected by the oth«r boarders, and when she lives; with a private family—strangers to her—she is very much at their mercy. The reverse of all this is true, of course; the boarder who is inconsiderate can make either a private familv or a whole, boardinghouss uncomfortable, but this survey of conditions in Wellington is from th'e girl's point of view. To-point out that 6he has freat difficulty in finding a suitable ome, and probably greater difficulty here than in other New Zealand' towns. A large proportion of Wellington householders help to pay the rent- by taking in boarders, but there are in this city a still greater number of women and girls requiring lodgings,, and those who care for their welfare have long been of the opinion that it is time provision ivas made for them. The girl aw\v from home deserves just as much attention and care as the young man away from'home, but here as everywhere else tho young man's voice has 1 been most, insistent.

A start was made in the right direction when the hostel for \vomen students was opened. That has been in every way a success, and the hostel could now, with advantage, be enlarged. The next tiling to do is to help >the Young Christian Association, who have for long been collecting .money towards a hostel fund. They now have : their plans cut and dried,. and they want more money to carry them out. ,So far,, all the money, . has been earned by the efforts of the . girls themselves, and the members have been: working very hard for . the bazaar in aid; of the hostel fund which is;.to be opened to-day. When Wellington has helped this society to get the hostel it wants, there may be other ways' of helping the -homeless girl, -but the Y.W.C.A.j by reason of its necessity and its enthusiasm, has a strong claim.