THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL, 15, 1908. A DESERVING MOVEMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9066, 15 April 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL, 15, 1908. A DESERVING MOVEMENT.

Fevr modern institutions, if indeed any, in the British Empire or in the United States, established for the social and moral well-being of the people, have greater world-wide ramifications, or are productive of so much general good, as the Young Men's Christian Association. A belief in Christianity is the only condition of active membership, though any reputable youth or adult may become an honorary member, irrespective of any other consideration. The institution is absolutely undenominational in character, and because of this and the great social work it undertakes, it has made and is making enormous strides. The organisation 'meets a multitude of social needs such as few kindred organisations meet, and its sphere of operations is infinitely wider. It provides means for the education of the young men of almost evtsfry important centre in the United States and British Empire; it provides for their intellectual and physical development, and for their rational entertainment during leisure hours. It takes thousands from the streets to the lectare halls, reading rooms and other resorts of innocent entertainment and mental culture, and aims at transforming the rising generation of the day into men who will be fit guides for future generations in all branches of mental, moral and physical enterprise. Little wonder that the Association progresses, and that its good influence is extending throughout the world. It seeks not to proselytise, i but to opei\ its beneficient arms to all who arc prepared to recognise '

the banner of Christendom which waves its welcome to the youth of the nations. The Masterton branch of the Association has done good work so far, and an effort is being made to extend its influence throughout the Wairarapa district. With this object in view the National Secretary for Australasia (Mr W. Gillanders, 8.A.), and the Wellington General Secretary (Mr H. N. Holmes), will visit Masterton to-day and remain here until Friday. Their object is to institute a financial campaign similar to those recently conducted, with marvellous success, in the four chief centres of the dominion. They desire, during their brief stay, to raise the sum of £750 to provide for the salary for three years of a district organising secretary. The campaign will be opened at the banquet to be tendered to the visitors this evening, and it is hoped that the sum needed will be subscribed before the two secretaries leave. The rapidity with which huge sums were raised by the Association in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin encourages the organisers to believe that Masterton will not be behind in substantially aiding the good work in hand. We wish them and the institution every success in the ' campaign ,now entered upon.

Our cablegrams this morning intimate that Mr A. G. Hales, war correspondent, is to contest the Northwest Manchester seat with Mr Winston Churchill, who has been chosen President of the Board of Trade in Mr Asquith's Cabinet. Mr Hales is an old Australian journalist, and those who know him will smile at what they will conceive to be his audacity < in contesting any seat in any British constituency. Yet he is an able man —rough, crude, vigorous, as a platform orator where labour matters are concerned. His style of oratory is such as to "catch on" with the average labourer, and he is aided by his obvious sincerity where the welfare of the worker is at stake. At one time a Sydney pressman, he migrated to West Australia in the early days of Coolgardie, and there established a small weekly paper. He organised the first Labour Association on the goldfields, and was its first president. Subsequently he drifted to South Africa, became a war correspondent, and later took up his abode in London, where he achieved a temporary success as a novelist. In a Labour electorate in Australia he wojld be a candidate to be reckoned with, but as an opponent of a Minister of the British Crown, and that Minister Mr Winston Churchill, it is hardly conceivable that he would have the remotest chance of success.