BOY SCOUTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 99, 23 October 1913, Page 2

BOY SCOUTS

A SENSIBLE SUGGESTION TO EXAMINE WATER COURSES. [BY TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] CHRISTCHURCrf, This Day. Useful work for Boy Scouts was the proposition supported to-day at the meeting of the Hospital Board by Dr. Fenwick. The matter came up in the report of the Public Health Committee, which stated that the committee was still hopeful of inducing local bodies to delegate their powers of sanitary inspection to the board. A suggestion had been made, and it was being followed up, that the services of the Boy Scouts might be enlisted in the work of examining country streams, especially those from which a water supply is drawn, tho idea being to, detect the existence of any pollution by dead carcases or drainage from pigstyes, cowsheds, _ etc. The Scouts would report to their officers, the officers reporting to the board. Dr. Fenwick said that at the meeting of the Public Health Committee it was stated that many water courses, especially those which passed through bushy country, might be obstructed by animals which had died while trying to get to the water. It was suggested that the board's inspectors should trace these ■water supplies and remove dead animals. This suggestion was impracticable, as the inspector's time was fully occupied m his routine work. He had offered to ha.ye this duty performed if possible by the Boy Scouts, and had been asked to report on the matter at the next meeting of the board. "I have received answers from Colonel Cossgrove, Dr. Inglis, the Revs. Orbell and Money, Mr. Goodman, and Mr. Benjamin, who are in command of the Scouts," said Dr. Fenwick. "All the answers were in favour of the idea, and I have offered a prize to the patrol of Scouts which sends m the best report. My idea is that each section of the country should be patrolled by the' Boy Scouts each month, each patrol making a map of the water courses and springs, and reporting if they had found and removed any dead animals or obstructions. The pubhe will readily appreciate this work of the Scouts ; they will naturally realise that a valuable work in the interests of the community is being voluntarily undertaken by the boys, and will credit the patrols with a public spirit which is creditable to both the boys and their scoutmasters. I hope the board will support this matter." Mr. J. D. Hall said that he agreed with Ur. Fenwiok. "At the same time," he went on, "there are flies that should bo killed. There is a work for boys."