NEED FOR MORE BOY SCOUTS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27824, 24 November 1955, Page 3

NEED FOR MORE BOY SCOUTS

CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED “Every boy should be given the opportunity to become a scout,” said the district commissioner of the Kowhai Boy Scout district (Mr N. Reeder) when he officially launched “Operation Jubilee” in the district. Groups at North Beach, South Brighton, New Brighton, and Aranui are included in the Kowhai district. “Operation Jubilee” is planned to double the present strength of 25,000 scouts in New Zealand by 1958—the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the first scout troops in the Dominion. “Each of the four groups has its own headquarters, or one being built, ana we have the facilities for training the boys,” said Mr Reeder, “but if we are to reach our district target quota of 600 boys, we must have more trained leaders.” Scouts’ training and the need for every Scout in every troop to make real progress each year so that he would obtain his first-class badge before the age of 15, were important, he said. Mr Reeder said that there would be training courses for the scouters as the success of the operation would depend on the number of men and womer* attracted to the movement who had a full appreciation of the religious am moral aims underlying the scheme o Scouting. As no boy should be deprived of Scouting, the district would consider the formation of scout groups in new housing areas. Plans were in hand so that the district annual target of achievement for the success of “Operation Jubilee” would be completed by the date of the Pan-Pacific Jamboree which was to be held in New Zealand in 1958, saia Mr Reeder.