The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, FEB, 27, 1906. THE CHURCH ARMY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1684, 27 February 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, FEB, 27, 1906.

THE CHURCH ARMY.

L\ a recent oablo wo were informed that tho King had been pleased to receive the Rev. W. Carlile, and to wish the work of the Church Army every success. Tho Church Army is an organisation founded by the Rev. Wilson Carlile in 188 L. It was started as a working man’s mission to workingmen, but the scheme was sufficiently elastic to permit development in any direction that might seem advisable. To-day (excepting the Salvation Army) it is the best friend of the exprisoner, the drunkard, and tho victim of exterior circumstances. The method

adopted is to provide work for the needy, and to help them to help themselves. '1 he Church Army has many spheres of influence, but perhaps the most interesting and useful is the Labor Homes which have been established all over the British Isles. In these institutions any man, no matter what his past may be, is offered board and lodging in return for his work, which consists of woodchopping. In each home there are about twenty-five inmates, and the aim of the Army is that every man shall leave the place morally fit, the usual time for a man to stay being about three months, longer if necessary. He can of course leave at any time he finds the labor irksome. Every inmate has to chop enough wood to pay the six shillings which is the sum charged for his week’s keep. He is allowed a fair wage, neither more nor less than the standard payment for such work, and, if he earns more than tho necessary six shillings, the remainder, after a deduction of a shilling per week, which he receives as pocket money, is banked for him pending the day when he leaves the home and starts life afresh. The industrious thus have a fair sum to their credit when they leave the institution —the idle are not allowed to remain. Every inmate has a comfortable bed and cheerful surroundings. Special attention is given to thoso about to be released from gaol, who arc given tho opportunity of a Labor Homo on their release. The Church Army take such in hand for tlireo months, by tho ond of which time they will have recovered their moral tone and be able to look their fellow-men in tho face. To prevent such persons returning to their old haunts, lodging houses have been established, where they pay a small sum per week and are under the watchful eye of an agent of the society. That , this work is an important one will be ! understood when it is stated that last : year the society dealt with almost i 2000 ex-prisoners, and rnado the 1

jority of them lionost men. In winter tho domands on tho society aro so great that arrangements liavo to bo rondo with tho owners of selected lodgiug lioubos to provido bods for nil who furnish a tickot from the Church Army. Last yoar bods woro provided for 5000 nightly. Last year the King sunimonod tho Rev. Mr Carlilo to Buckingham L’alaco, and as a mark of liis ontiro sympathy presented him with £LOO towards tho funds of tho organisation. With this sum tho King’s Labor Touts woro sot up, whoro work was provided for 800 a day, enabling thorn to earn a couplo of meals and a bod. (luoon Aloxaudor rocontly gavo £SO to tho Church Army to open a relief yard for tho unemployed. Another part of the work is tho despatch of suitable men to our colonies. Tho Church Army has also its evangelistic as well as a social side, the form of religion propounded being that of the Church of England. As tho Prison Commissioners in England stated in their latest Blue Book, tho Church Army has grown by stoady and cautious development into one of tho groat reclaiming influences of tho ago.