On most evenings the number of boys using the playground is in the neighbourhood of 100, the total numder of boys using the playground at the present moment being 172. Each of the boys Is issued with a membership card which enlifes him to admission to the ground at the specified times. The boys arrive in batches as they nish work, and continue to play until the fading light puts a stop to any further activities. The most urgent need at the moment, which is ing met by the Council, is floodlighting system which would enable the recreational activities to continue after dusk, as many of the boys are tunable to leave their jobs until late in the evening.
An analysis of the 172 boys who fare making use of the playground shows that 45 of them are either unemployed or receive no wage at all for their services, while an equal number receive wages ranging from 40 cents to $1 a month. Of the 126, in employment, nine put in 12 hours 'a day, and-81 put in ten hours, One-third of the boys are under 16, and the majority are between the ares of 18 and 18. A wide variety of occupations 1s represented, these including the manufacture of' flashlight bulbs, tin canning, tobacco manufacture, bookbinding, printing, painting: work In rubber factories, shipyards, and cotton mills.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.