BOYS’ BRIGADE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27565, 24 January 1955, Page 3

BOYS’ BRIGADE

MEETING OF N.Z. COUNCIL

SIR WILLOUGHBY NORRIE ATTENDS SERVICE

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 23. The annual New Zealand council gatherings oi the Boys’ Brigade were neld at tne Bible Training Institute in Auckland over the weekend. Seventy delegates from companies throughout New Zealand took part in the council deliberations.

Today they were joined by boys from Auckland companies lor a special service at the Beresford Street Congregational Church, conducted by the Kev. A. Williams. This service was attended by the Governor-General (Sir Willoughby Norrie), Lady Norrie and tneir family, and by the Mayor of Auckland (Mr J. H. Luxford). A guard of honour was provided by boys of Auckland companies. His Excellency read the lesson.

After an address by the Rev. R. L. Challis this afternoon, the conference unanimously decided to investigate the possibility of sending a full-time training officer to supervise Boys’ Brigade work in the Pacific islands.

Mr Challis, who founded the Boys’ Brigade work in the Cook Islands in 1935, and has since made two visits to Sdrnoa to undertake training classes, said that Boys’ Brigade work had been launched in the islands by the London headquarters of the movement, but there was now an urgent need for a trained man to act as organiser. It was felt that the initiative in providing such a man must come from the New Zealand brigade. The annual report stated that the movement had continued to grow, but there had been a lack of suitable leaders. This particularly hampered extension of the work ambng Maoris. However, a Maori company had been enrolled in the Waiapu diocese, and it was hoped that others would follow. Seventeen training courses had been held, said the report. Ten of these had been attended by 117 Boys’ Brigade officers, and the other seven by 99 leaders of the Life Boys. Toward the end of the year, said the report, the first brigade award for gallantry in New Zealand had been presented to Private Devon Ellison, of the Ist Nelson Company, who had gone to the assistance of his grandfather when he was attacked by a demented man with a bayonet.