Scouting In The Pacific

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32222, 14 February 1970, Page 14

Scouting In The Pacific

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KENNETH ANTHONY)

staJT? STORY

Many different countries have issued stamps from time to time With' boy scouts as their subject. This includes Great Britain, where the movement originated, which contributed a set of three stamps for the world jubilee jamboree in 1957. Few issues give a better illustration of the world-wide' nature of scouting as a worthwhile occupation for boys than a set issued in February, 1969, by the remote Cook Islands in the Pacific.

These stamps were produced on the occasion of a jamboree held at Christchurch in New celebrate the diamond jubilee of the movement in that country. The scout - movement in New Zeala/d started two years after the founder, Lord Baden-Powell, held his celebrated z first experimental scout camp on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, on

tue auu.o coast of Engiauu Lord Baden-Powell himself visited Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands, in 1935, and presented Captain J. D. Campbell, chief scout of the islands, with the Silver Wolf award in recognition of his exceptional services. This occasion is recalled by the 30c stamp of the set, which features BadenPowell’s portrait, with a view of Rarotonga in the background. Scouting has been very

popular in the islands ever | since. The present premier, Mr Albert Henry, and several of the ministers of the government were scouts in their younger days. Captain Campbell led the Cook Islands contingent iwhich attended the 1969 j jamboree in New Zealand. In (the previous year Captain Campbell received the Silver Tui, the highest honour in New Zealand scouting—the tui being a New Zealand bird. The Cook Islands scout stamps are all large square designs. Other values in the set show typical scouting activities, such as cooking over a camp fire, against the unfamiliar and colourful background of these Pacific islands. On the 10c stamp Illustrated here two young scouts are seen planting a tree as part of the Cook Islands soil conservation programme.