BOY SCOUT MOVEMENT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 150, 21 March 1939, Page 5

BOY SCOUT MOVEMENT

Calibre Of Australian Leaders COMMISSIONER’S TRIBUTE “During- my recent visit to the Australasian scout jamboree in Bradfield, Sydney, I was much impressed by the calibre of the men who were taking the lead in scouting iu Australia,'* states the Deputy Dominion Chief Scout Commissioner, Mr. F. W. Horner, of Hawera, in a memorandum to Dominion headquarters. “They struck me as a very fine type indeed. There were quite a number of returned soldiers of high military rank who had been associated witii the movement as commissioners for many years. There were also men prominent in business and educational circles —my table mate at mess was a doctor of philosophy from South Australia.

“I made a point of inquiring from these men why they were so deeply interested in scouting and their viewpoint in a nutshell was this: They felt that the boy growing up today was everywere faced with the temptation to take tilings easy. Money was more plentiful and as a result pleasures and entertainment could be procured easily and without any apparent effort on the boy’s part. “They felt that scouting was the only movement that sought to imbue the boy with the old pioneering spirit that built the foundations of their country, the spirit of self-reliance, of industry, of thrift, of mutual helpfulness: the Jove of the open air, of the bush, and of camping and hiking—these were the things which the boy of today badly needed and which scouting was seeking to give him. “From the bearing of our boys, both in the camp and in the public displays at the jamboree, I think that we in New Zealand have every reason to be proud of the contingent we sent to 'Australia. There is no doubt from the comments made to us by Lord Hampton and other leaders that the New Zealand contingent has done credit to the good name of New Zealand, and I certainly felt on my return home that the job we are engaged in for the youth of New Zealand is thoroughly worth-while.”