SCOUT FINANCE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 48, 19 November 1932, Page 7

SCOUT FINANCE

Spending of Reserves ANIMATED DEBATE Poor Public Aid Criticised When a suggestion was made at the annual meeting of the Dominion Council of the Boy Scouts Association yesterday that the an- . nual income should be expended in training and other ways instead of being put to reserve, the idea ' oun< J a good deal of opposition. Apart from the opening of the conference by his Excellency the GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisioe, the financial debate” constituted the main business of the meeting. Mr. J. R. Kirk, M.8.E., of Gisborne, presided over a full attendance; Following the adoption of the annual report, Mr. J. S. Middleton moved the adoption of the balance-sheet, which he regretted was not as good as they would like to see it. The Government grant had been stopped and they were more or less living on capital. Expenditure had been reduced from £2OOO to a little over £lOOO, and it was fortunate that in the past something had been put by for a rainy day. ' , , Mr. H. Amos (Wellington) seconded, and congratulated the council upon the careful way in which the income and expenditure accounts had been looked after. The organisation could not have been more economically controlled. At the same time he did not think the policy of trying to build up reserves from income was the right one. ' A reserve fund should not be built up out of income in such an organisation as the Boy Scouts.. The money contributed by the public should be spent on the Scouts, and had that been done they would have had a better organisation in Wellington to-day, although the position was very satisfactory, thanks to the excellent commissioners. 1 Lost Money On Rally. ■ Mr. Amos proceeded to refer to the apathy of parents and the public generally by referring to the recent rally at the Basin Reserve. Good publicity work was done, and the rally was a splendid one, yet the receipts were only £2B and the actual expenses were £35, If the association had the income an ideal way of spending it would be by having a training officer in each of the four centres, from which they could travel the country, districts. He would like next year to see the association spend the accumulated fund or £l6OO on training. If reserves were dOsired they should be built up from bequests and donations made for that purpose. (. , '■ ■ . ' Boys Should Help Themselves. The speaker-then referred to the levy of 1/- per scout imposed last year, from which it was expected £6OO would be raised. It had not been .possible to raise the levy, as in Wellington alone it had' taken, them all their time to struggle through the year. ,He plso mentioned the Hobby Exhibition at the Town Hall, but which .was so poorly attended that they would probably get “a tenner”- out of it. “I am beginning to wonder if we cannot do too much for our future citizens,” said Mr. Amos, “and if the public and parents will not support the honorary work Of our officers better in the future than they have done in the past the best thing we can do will -be to drop out of it.” He alluded to the splendid effort at Christchurch, where 500 bbys were found jobs, and said as the.jobs were there it might have been better had the boys or parents gone out and found the jobs for themselves. “Perhaps we are doing too much for the rising generation, instead of them doing something for themselves,” concluded Mr. Amos. Mr. H. Christie (Wanganui) said that if their cause was as good as they believed it to be they would have no difficulty in getting the citizens of the country to provide it with the necessary funds. He did not agree that they should get rid of ths credit balance. The association h.ad fallen on evil days but was able to keep going because of the balance in hand. “It is just as well we had a reserve or our work would have gone back in this difficult year,” said Mr. A. J. McEldowney (Christchurch). “Pulling Our Leg.” Colonel R. C. Fenwick (Christchurch), honorary chief Dominion commissioner, said he could not believe Mr. Amos was serious in .suggesting that the whole of the reserve should be silent. “I think he js pulling our leg,” he added. -Mr. Amos refuted this, saying that if they appealed to the public for funds the reply was ,“What about your accumulated funds?” Colonel Fenwick replied that if such a policy was adopted generally no one in New Zealand would have any money, and if the council agreed to such a course he would get out of the movement. No businessman would spend all he had in the hope that somebody would give him something more to carry on. In regard to training, the council was doing its best, and he wished they had enough money to have a training officer in every centre. He hoped the council would abolish the levy, which he hated. Not Bankrupt. The chairman said he did not like to do away with the levy, which was only a penny a month. Boys could get that by selling the old newspapers at home and in other ways. That spirit must be inculcated in boys to-day as it had been in past generations. He also thought the council should not be restricted in its methods of obtaining finance. “This institution is by no means bankrupt, nor near being bank nipt,” proceeded the chairman. “It won’t be bankrupt. We must have a levy. If they won’t do it where are we? Where is the loyalty? Is it merely lip-loyalty?” The levy was decided on at the last annual meeting, said the chairman, and there had been no suggestion until now that there had been any difficulty in raising it. They must have finance, and lie thought many people would willingly become ■ honorary members by paying a small subscription. They should also increase the price of the badges. The chairman paid tribute to the work done by the officers in Wellington. Dr. Marshall Macdonald, Wellington, remarked that honest criticism should not he regarded as disloyalty.’He instanced ways in which boys could raise money, one being the collection of ordinary used postage stamps, for which he believed dealers paid 3d. a hundred. He knew one boy who had £2O in his savings bank through doing that. People Who Give Nothing. He hardly liked to suggest an art union as a means of raising funds for the Scout movement, added the speaker, but it was a way of getting something from “flappers” and others who never spent money, on any object except themselves. “It is unthinkable that

this movement should come to a standstill for want of funds. There is money available. While theoretically we should spend the money on the movement as it is collected, I cannot agree that we should dip into our nest egg any more than we are obliged to do.” Mr, Amos replied, and stressed the fact, that the boys could not be expected to find more than they were doing at present They were collecting papers and bottles. A “Scout shop” was started in Wellington, but was not a succe.ss, as it could not compete with the firms who were selling Scout equipment. He was personally £7O to £BO out of pocket over the shop. The balance-sheet was then adopted. Levy Abolished. ’ On the motion of Colonel Fenwick it was decided to abolish the levy, and on the motion of Mr. W. E. S. Furby the price of badges is to be increased to the price charged in Australia. Mr. Middleton said the increase in the price of badges would assure the council of an additional income. A suggestion that a levy of 5/- to 10/- per troop should be made was withdrawn. The chairman, who had previously announced his intention to move that headquarters be permitted to raise money from the public by such means as were possible, and that honorary members be admitted at a minimum subscription of $/-,' stated that he would drop the proposal..