Festival at Dr Barnardo's

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 24 March 1891, Page 3

Festival at Dr Barnardo's

Yesterday a very large* gathering visiteiJ the various Workshops, dormil tories, kitchen, baker, workshops ol ten different trades, hospital, creche,! and other portions of Dr Barnardo'sß great and busy charity , at StepneH Causeway^.fta the occasion oiy thi New Ye^'f ihoUdajy festival v^p4siH toi^JM^h^cf flock in soon afler -<b_W -soidji^SO- an immense audience sembledln Ibhe gymnasium to the" aB nual meeting over which Dr BarharcH presided) although still suffer inH fron^ the effects of a recent fall. '** oper^M^ialaCement of the presidenß forcii|^lustra*ted both the magriiM "• tude*-CTrrhe^ beneficient work beinfl done -ib/ibni^ East-end mission, 'an« the appalling 'amount of the work tefl be done in relieving the destitution of this enormous metropolis. Fou_B pallid featured young chiidrerß (among six brought in y< sterday/i I were put upon little beds to illustrate the manner in Avhich the homeless ones that apply are treated. Crippled and dwarfed ' children .performed evolutions, other childen happy and now -rosy and healthy looking sung, played on the bagpipes and ring hand bells, while below every workshop, ring with, the hammer, the anvil, the hatchet of the wood choppers, -ihe carpenter's tools, and : the merry voices of- the. .worker's in the tailors, the hat makers, and the brush-makers and other workshops wheilfe the quieter industeries were being jja-rried on, and last bu. not the least enjoyed of all that was going on in the large a,nd busy hive, there procelssioii ' of ' si. gigantic plum, puddingt? headed by Father Christmas with! a». enormous Christmas xraoker. In spite, of the un-usually-heavy calls made upbh the resources of the institution by the presenl inclement weather, no child has jSKJajk ( $§fcsed j^ksission,. children»wit_io_it "ofiage, creed, nationality, or of physical condition, JbfiihgActmitted^at any hour of the *^ay -or night. Neavly 4000, babies, children and youths compose this htfge family, the largest, surely," in theworld^ coming from every portion ofthe^meliropolis, and it requires no feWel* than, forty-one different establishments to accomodate them, and*-br food* alone no less a' sum than^l^.pe^^a^to keep then} , in. heajyi. Last, year the applications for admission amounted to 5,268, the admissions, permanently to 1555. ProvMoh " Was ;for 2*pl : ' x hsys and'jjyp4 ; _Vy'^ colonies, to which, in all, 4,562 young people have been sent since the migration scheme was organised. The number provided with situations of various kinds during 1890 reached withKLithiriieen of a thousand. The philanthropic- deputy-governor, Mi Fowler, who showed our reporter the resources of the organisation, explained the great organisation in which an army of beadles, watchers, visitors, inquiry agents, instructors, and .teachers are employed. — Tht ~4&pk.