The Mount Magdala Asylum

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 144, 5 July 1888, Page 3

The Mount Magdala Asylum

Prom a letter forwarded to us by Father Ginaty, we extract the followv ing:— As you were good enough to say that your columns were opened to: the advocacy of my work, in case you could eon reniently refer to the matter again at an early date, permit me to observe that there are a few points what I perceive not to be clearly grasped by the less-reflecting minds, and these are the following : — = 1. That the " Mount Magdala. Mag- ■ dalen Asylum" is open to all classes from all parts of New Zealand and elsewhere ; .... 2. That whilst the institution is located near Christchurch, it must be admitted that its effects are local for every city and township in New Zealand; 3. That the claims of " Mount Magdala" are to many minds more imperative elsewhere than in Canterbury, for if inmates coming from other districts did not persevere under the gentle rule of reformation, followed at Mount Megdala, then Christchurch most probably would T>e burdened with the cost of such inmates, where lives eventually would be passed from the streets to the gaol and the gaol to the streets ; ■ • • . 4. That the first portion 6f the building is actually completed, and that already five and twenty penitents are drawn off from mishap from Auckland to Otago ; 5. That penitents from any part are received without any hesitation or delay caused by any formality, the claim to admission being the fact that they are penitents. Though the promises were more numerous than the actual cash I received in .Feilding, still -I have been very pleased fo have had an occasion to notice the commercial aspect of the place, for when I am running over hill and dale in the "Mount Magdala" cause, I am often brought face to face with discussion on the relative presentworth and probable future position of many of our .towns and 'cities of this young colony,- and as seeing is believing in- many cases, so with me it would have 'been if any one had told me that suck an excellent hotel as 'that of Mia.Hastie's would have been found in Feilding. Through the kind-" ness off the- proprietess- 1 have had an opportunity- to inspect the whole establishment, and for order, neatness, and comfort I have seen nothing to excel it in New Zealand ; and to my mind, as far as it fe 7 <pernutted to judge front, a passing' visit, the most exacting traveller would fell satisfied within its walls. The formal opening of " Mount Magdala?* will be on the 22nd of next month,, the. feast of fiwt Mary Magdalen, the Gospel Penitent* under whose patronage are placed- the 1-53 houses of the Good Shepherd that' are consigned to the ear© of the Sisterhood. And at this moment there are 4000 ladies of high intellectual culture, and and rarest virtue, engaged in the reformation of 20,000 young girls and women in every clime beneath the sun. No wonder, then, that a gifted journalist recently wrote : •— " Th«» Mount Magdala scheme is one of unalloyed beneficence ; and, what is more, it is practical and successful in its operation. It actually has the immediate effect of lessening the sum of human misery, by raising once more to hope and happiness and usefulness, the crushed and brutalieed victims of a ruthless social system. . . .. Money that is subscribed towards the work at Mount Magdala is a safe and effective offering to true charity, which knows no difference of creed or denomination." — I am, &c, L. M. Gwaty, S.M.