The Dominion TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1921. A COMMUNITY CLUB

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 97, 18 January 1921, Page 6

The Dominion TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1921. A COMMUNITY CLUB

The proposal of the National Defence League to establish a '’community club” for the Territorials and Senior Cadets of the metropolitan district has excellent features and deserves to be supported. A club of this kind, established and conducted on sound lines, ought to do a great deal to popularise defence training and make, it effective. At the same time it offers a partial but promising remedy for one of the worst weaknesses in our community life the somewhat widespread tendency to allow the youth of the day to wander unaided and unguided iuto the maze of problems with which they will of necessity be called upon to deal in adult life. Our community life needs toning up at many points, and nowhere more than in this matter of extending a helping hand to those who will prescntly assume the burdens as well as the privileges of citizenship. As the proposals of the National Defence League are outlined, the “community clubi” would iu some respects resemble the Sydney Street Soldiers’ Club which was visited and appreciated bv so many soldiers under training (luring the war periodThe Sydney Street Club owed its popularity and usefulness to the splendid work of its volunteer hostesses, and undoubtedly it is open to women to play as useful a part in making the new club a success. YVhilc it is intended that the club should offer pleasant features of social life and be equipped with various facilities for recreation and for physical culture, other interests are not overlooked. The promoters contemplate also the provision of a lecture hall in which qualified speakers will deliver addresses on such subjects as citizenship and personal health and hygiene. The idea in brief is to create an attractive and comfortable gathering centre for the Territorials and Cadets of the metropolitan district —a place of resort in which they would be subject only to wholesome and helpful influences. No one who thoughtfully considers the possibilities of good inherent in such an establishment can doubt that the public will be well advised to extend to its promoters the sympathy and support which will enable them to put their project into practical working shape. A wellconducted “community club” would in many cases compensate to some extent deficiencies in home life by which members of the rising generation arc handicapped in a degree beyond their knowledge. To those who are fortunate in their home life, the club would offer, under the best conditions, broadening and stimulating experience. • Assuming that it is successfully founded, as it certainly ought to be, the club, of course, will have to become much more than a place of pleasant recreation if it is to justify its continued existence. Under the plans which have been formed, it might be made the means of doing much to promote sound health, clean living, and the habits of intelligent inquiry and reflection which aro the essential foundation of good citizenship. The scope that; is open for useful activity in these directions is almost unlimited. This country, like some other democracies, is allowing too many of. its youthful citizens to grow up without any effective stimulus to mental and moral development, and such conditions are not only detrimental to the individual, but imperil the whole future of the State. The internal and external problems of national life are becoming more and more complex, and it is impossible to imagine a future of security and well-being for any democratic country. which dees not succeed in maintaining and develop ing high ideals of citizenship. Realising its best possibilities, the “community club” now proposed would represent a useful contribution to the establishment of a better social order. It offers an admirable means of implanting the spirit of responsibility and developing powers of thought and initiative in those who will make or mar the future of their country.