INCREASED INTEREST IN SCOUTING

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22430, 17 June 1938, Page 6

INCREASED INTEREST IN SCOUTING

w TRAINING COMMISSIONER’S SOUTHERN TOUR URGENT NEED FOR LEADERS OF TROOPS Appointed under a new scheme following the reorganisation of Dominion Boy Scout Headquarters about a year ago, Commissioner J. R. H. Cooksey, headquarters’ training commissioner, has been making a tour of the South Island. He will leave Christchurch for the North Island this evening, but will return soon to the South Island i to put into operation a training scheme for scoutmasters. Commissioner Cooksey's appointment is that of a liaison officer. He travels through the country to keep in touch with scoutmasters and awaken public interest. Speaking yesterday about the movement in the Dominion, he said that it had shown great signs of improvement in recent months, the most encouraging feature being the increased interest on the' part of the public. There were now 13,000 scouts in New Zealand. There was an urgent need fbr leaders, said the commissioner, to make the most of the renewed interest in scouting. He had been pleased to find that financial support of the movement in, recent months had been greater than' ever before. Between 5000 and 6000 scouts from all parts of the world were expected to gtteacl tha international jamboree,

at Trentham during the centenary celebrations in 1940, he said. An international jamboree at Sydney at the end of this year would be attended by I between 200 and 300 scouts from New L Zealand.