THE GIRLS’ HOSTEL.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 June 1921, Page 5

THE GIRLS’ HOSTEL.

A QUESTION ANSWERED. (Contributed.) “Will the Y.W.C.A. Hostel be for anjfr girls?” ’This question is sometimes asked—and at first we wonder what exactly is’ implied by it, and the further comment follows. “Well, we know that youngwomen in business, especially in thaj office, workroom and shop will find a home there, but how about the girls ins domestic work, will they be welcome?’* The Y.W.C.A. hostel will be for girls, and young women any occupation who have need of the accommodation it affords. The girl who finds her workin the home is not the one who has the most need of a hostel, but there are times when she too has need, as, for ex-,; ample, when she comes a stranger to a town, or when she wants a Then she is entirely welcome and hafl£ the same right as others. AU honor,' is given in the Y.W.C.A. to the girl who works in the home, for she is putting her contribution of time in the place of primary importance. It does not happen that girls engaged in the home or domestic work stay for any length of rime in hostels, because their time is in demand elsewhere.

“But will the girls of these different, occupations live hippily in the same hostel?” It is rather pathetic that such a question should ever be asked or need an answer. It would almost appear that at least one of the lessons of the war was in vain. In the trenches men, from al] ranks of city and country life learned to live together and to appreciate each other’s gifts. Women, too, learned to work together as never before in munition factories and in war service. Said a young woman who had lived in the Y.W.C.A. hostel in Dunedin, herself the head of a dress-making department: “I can’t understand why that should be considered a difficulty; though there were girls from all kinds of work living together it never made any difficulty.” Here Christian leadership settles such problems.