GIRL “SPOTTERS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 728, 30 July 1929, Page 16

GIRL “SPOTTERS”

HABIT CONDEMNED BY ARCHBISHOP Y.W.C.A. ADDRESS “I have the greatest respect for, and the highest opinion of, our ‘modern’ girls, i have a high opinion of their capacities and characters, but I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that there is a class of girl who is bringing sorrow into many homes and discredit to many parents by exhibiting a low type of mentality.” THUS, in a forceful and inspiring address at the 43rd annual meeting of the Auckland Young Women’s Christian Association last evening, his 3 Grace the Archbishop of New Zealand, the Most Rev. A. W. Averill, D.D., attacked the prevalence of “spotting” among certain classes of girl. DISCREDIT TO SEX His Grace said that on Sunday evening he had had the privilege of being associated with a Christian girls’ organisation, and again that evening. But in the interval he had been told a very sad tale by a prominent society woman about a certain type of girl in and about Auckland who, in her great desire for independence, was kicking against all moral restraint, and bringing discredit upon her sex and companions. The woman had attributed this to the habit of “spotting” under which girls lost all sense of modesty and decency. Dr. Averill said that as far as men who joined women in the contamination of the sex were concerned—they were not worthy of the name of men. “It is important that girls and women should be banded together as in the Y.W.C.A. to exhibit the real type of Christian life. There should be every opportunity of cultivating leadership. We want leaders in every phase of society today with the moral courage to stand for the things that matter. It is in such a society as this that moral courage is created. SEEKING AN ANTIDOTE “It was no use deploring the tendencies,” his Grace considered. “An antidote had to be found among the women and girls who would take a pride in things that were pure and of good report in the world.” The speaker had inspected the building and its activities, and he felt that the mental and moral spirit of the association was giving the girls something pure and beautiful as an antidote to that other spirit which resulted so often from empty mindedness. Dr. Averill strt sed the tremendous importance of right thinking, and in that respect the work of the Y'.W.C.A. ■was helping girls to get the right attitude. “As a Christian association, your ideals must be based on the ideals of Jesus Christ. “The Y.W.C.A. is the servant and handmaid of all Christian churches. It is not a substitute for them. It is helping them to develop character, and it is rendering everyone of the Christian churches a great service. “We are all in the world to make the best of ourselves, not for ourselves, but for others,” said the Archbishop in a parting message to the girls.