ROUSING WELCOME

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 112, 5 February 1935, Page 10

ROUSING WELCOME

World Chief Scout at Auckland TO FISH AND REST Tribute to Dominion Boys at Melbourne Dominion Special Service. Auckland, February 4. Maori and Pakeha scouts from IVhakatane performed a rousing haka on Prince's Wharf this morning to greet the World Chief Scout, Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell, when he arrived by the Aorangi from Sydney for his third visit to New Zealand. The welcome typified the devotion of boys the world over to the founder of scouting. Lord Baden-Powell, who has come to New Zealand "mainly for rest and trout fishing, declined to be interviewed. However, lie authorised Colonel Granville Walton, representing Imperial Scout Headquarters, to say that he bad looked forward eagerly to revisiting New Zealand and catching some of the excellent fish which he had been unable to go after when he was last here. He had been greatly impressed by the fine New Zealand contingent at the Melbourne Jamboree, where the spirit of friendship had been strongly manifested. Mixture of Nationalities. Speaking of the Chief Seoul's present Empire tour, Colonel Walton said rallies had been held at all the ports of call after leaving England, including Gibraltar, Toulon, Alexandria, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, other ports in the East Indies, Port Darwin and Thursday Island. The mixture of-nationali-ties was remarkable. In Egypt, scouts included British, Egyptians, Greeks, Armenians and various nationalities from Palestine. At Aden there were British Somalis and Arabs all mixed together. The scouts at Coloriibo presented . a pageant of the history of Ceylon, with songs and procession in native dress. The Melbourne jamboree was most successful. In New Zealand, Lord Baden-Powell will undertake no public engagements, apart from attending rallies in the four centres. He will leave Wellington on March 19. 1 ' Colonel Walton added that the Scout Movement was spreading steadily throughout the world, and now had a membership of 2,250,000 in 44 countries. LADY BADEN-POWELL Wide Travels in Interests of Girl Guides Dominion Special Service. Auckland, February 4. “I think we have solved the problem of perpetual motion. At the end of this tour we shall have just one day at home and then we are off to Sweden,” said Lady Baden-Powell, World Chief of the Girl Guide movement, when she was interviewed aboard the Aorangi to-day. “We” included Lady Ijaden-Powell s distinguished husband and their two daughters, the Hon. Betty and Hon. Heather Baden-Powell, who are carrying out secretarial duties on the present tour. Most of last year Lady BadenPowell spent in tours of European countries in the interests of the Guide movement. In recent months she and. Lord Baden-Powell have travelled to Australia by way of Suez and the East Indies. Leaving ’ New Zealand six weeks hence, she will undertake a tour of Canada. From England she is to go # immediately to Sweden and then to South Africa. However, she has become used' to almost continuous travel in the interests, of the great movement of which she has been Empire head for 15 years and world head for five; Influence on Status of Women. Lady Baden-Powell spoke hopefully of the influence of the Girl Guide movement’ upon the status of women in the East. In India, she said, it was helping to overcome the barriers of caste, and might be regarded as a bridge between the old order and the new. In the westernisation of the East it was necessary to give the best that the West had to offer, and this she believed the movement was doing. Experience had proved that it had an appeal to every race-. In New Zealand Lady Baden-Powell will confine her work to the four centres and Napier.