A GENEROUS GIFT,

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 864, 9 July 1910, Page 4

A GENEROUS GIFT,

On Monday last we reported that an anonymous donor had bestowed on the Wellington Boys' Institute land and money to the amount of ; about £2000. To-day it is recorded that the same wise and generous hands have supplemented this splendid gift with a further sum of £360 to purchase additional land for the site of the Institute's new building. We are not altogether sure that anonymity is entirely wise in ' these matters; not so much because it would be much pleasanter for the public to be able to give direct applause to such good citizens as because anonymous gifts arc upon the whole not potent in encouraging emulation in well-doing. We shall so far respcct the wishes of the Institute's generous friend, however, as to say only that she is a lady whose public benefactions are large and numerous. Of the social value of, Boys' Institute it is unnecessary to speak. The gifts under notice will enable the committee to proceed with the erection of a building to provide accommodation for working boys in receipt of wages not exceeding 18s. per week and for boys temporarily out of employment. This,is a magnificent idea, and one that 1 should appeal to every person of feeling. In a statement we printed last Monday the president of the Institute said, "We believe that the public will see us through." The public certainly ought to, and we have not the least doubt that it will. It is to bo hoped that the Institute, will direct all ite appeals _to private generosity, for nothing in our Stateridden life is so likely to keep the spirit of social service alive as frequent drafts upon it. The citizens really do not do badly, considering the extent to whi'ch the individual has been led to rely upon "the State," but our wealthier citizens ought to follow the example of the' lady who has so finely befriended the Institute. It is not a want of generosity on their part, we arc sure, that deters them from opening wide their nurses for the benefit of the community, but a kind of despair and distrust of the conditions of the time.

A largely-attended meeting of the Wellington Rnilway Mutual Improvement and Social Ciub was held "in the Lambton Railway Station Reading Room last night. A debate took place on a subject entitled, "Is Compulsory Military Training Desirable? 1 ' Mr. Cappio opened for the affirmative, and Mr. Kylo for tho negative. After the leaders' had , spoken, the subject was then open for general discussion, and, at tho end of a very enjoyable evening, tlio question was decided in the affirmative. Mr. Hutchings presided over the meeting.