CHURCH PARADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 136, 12 June 1933, Page 9

CHURCH PARADE.

GUIDES AND SCOUTS

"GOD'S NATURAL GIFTS." ADDRESS BY LORD BLEDISLOE. About 1000 girl guides and 500 boy scouts attended the annual Auckland church parade In the Town Hall yesterday. His Excellency the GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe, and Lady Blodisloo were present. Mr. W. J. Holdswortli, metropolitan commissioner of the scouts presided, and associated with him 011 the platform were Mrs. R. M. Tolhurst, chairwoman of the Dominion executive of the guides, acting in place of Mrs. W. R. Wilson, chief commissioner, Mrs. lv. <T. Coates, provincial commissioner, Miss M. Smeeton, divisional commissioner, guide and scout commissioners and executive members, and representatives of the cliurchcs. Tho proceedings throughout were impressive. Features of tho parade were

the marching in and final retirement of tho guard of honour, composed of bearers of the colours of every troop represented, and tho spectacle of every guide and scout, with right hand upraised, solemnly renewing the sacred pledge of the order. Prayers and hymns were appropriate to the occasion. Lord Bledisloe delivered an address on tho international aspect of guiding and scouting. By way of preliminary, he mentioned the enterprise of a troop of Cliris'tchurch rover scouts. With the ultimate object of linking u;p rover scouts throughout New Zealand, Australia and Canada, the North Beach Rover Scout Crew commenced on June 1 wireless transmissions from a station operated by its own radio society. It had successfully interchanged felicitattion with New Plymouth. That not only showed, said his Excellency, the resourcefulness, inventiveness and cnterpriso among the older brothers of the scout movement, but in that respect New Zealand scouts were pointing the way to the rest of the world.

One Great Family. The point was made by liis Excellency that gatherings such as the world jamboree of 1920,. when scouts of 42 different nations lived together, produced an atmosphere in which war was impossible. "That signifies," he added, "that we all belong to one great human family, whatever might be our colour or race or our station in life. If we are narrow in our lookout 011 mankind at large, we are failing in the greatest of all loyalties, our loyalty to God, who, after all, is Father of all, and whoso Fatherhood necessarily implies our brotherhood and sisterhood with people of all nations of the world. Lack of mutual knowledge is the great source of strife in the world. Tho great need of the world to-day is tho constant and friendly intercourse of nations. This spacious comradeship comes well within the scope of your scout and guide law." Love of Nature. Speakiijg of what the children had in common with others, liis Excellency said: "You have God's beautiful nature with all its spacious grandeur and beauty, freedom and inspiration, its trees, its flowers, its wild life, its beautiful sunsets, its breaking waves, its besprinkled firmament. A love of nature is an unconscious love of God, who provided for us all without distinction of class, race or people its wondrous gifts so full of harmony and of peace. I venture to suggest to you that if you wish to enrich your sense of comradeship, which is so important in the worid to-day, throw yourselves, as you have opportunity, into the expansive delights of God's natural gifts. Power for Good. "I havo a most profound belief in tho power for good of your two great movements," concluded his Excellency, "and I most sincerely hope that now that the scouts in particular have been re-established on a sounder footing, the two great movements will embrace all that is healthy and patriotic throughout the whole of this country, and will make their indelible mark /for good in the interests of the future of this country and this Empire. God bless you all." The collection taken up at the gathering, it was announced, will bo devoted to the Governor-General's winter relief fund.