DR. BARNARDO’S HOMES.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1922, Page 7

DR. BARNARDO’S HOMES.

A WONDERFUL TRAINING AND ITS RESULT. There is no work more widely known and admired than Dr. Barnardo’s Homes. In June last His Excellency the Gover-nor-General of Australia, speaking at a reception tendered to him by the Victoria League in Adelaide, paid a striking tribute to the worth of these Homes. He commended them as “a work to which the League could lend a ready and helping band,” and referred to the wonderful success of the 30,000 Barnardo boys and girls who had been sent, to Canada, pointing out that “the smallest possible percentage, something like 2 per cent., have turned out unsatisfactory.” When we remember that many of the boys and girls were in their teens when admitted to the Homes, the result is indeed remarkable and proves the value of the training given in the Barnardo Homes. The technical training of the boys and the domestic training of the girls could hardly in show so splendid a return were the moral and spiritual training lacking, and on this subject the testimony of two English Bishops is interesting. The Bishop of Chelmsford, in whose diocese the Girls’ Village Home and the Boys’ Garden City are both situated, says: “It is difficult to write of Dr. Barnardo’s Homes without using language which might appear exaggerated. The work is indescribable in its extent, in its variety and in its success. I speak with an inside knowledge, and unhesitatingly I commend the work as one of the finest efforts to build up strong men and women that I have ever seen, or concerning which I have ever read. The social and industrial side of the work is magnificent, but behind it all and permeating it all is the spiritual, which is ever kept as the primary consideration in dealing with the children. To churchmen this work should thoroughly appeal; while the noncomformist section is dealt with on its own lines. 1 wish to emphasise that the work done from a church point of view is admirable.” The Bishop of Norwich speaks of his visits to the Barnardo Naval Schoo) “in order to hold confirmations among the boys there,” and this, he continues, “brings me into somewhat close touch with the work, and I have no hesitation in saying how much I admire it and believe in it.”

The annual collection in New Plymouth will be made during April by properly authorised lady collectors, and as the Homes are in urgent need of support it is to be hoped that residents will respond with the same generosity they have shown in previous years. Mrs. Dockrill, being unable to organise the effort this year, Miss A. Evans has kindly consented to act as honorary secretary, and offers of help, or donations, should be sent to her at 17, Pen* darves Street.