SCOUT NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 24 March 1926, Page 14

SCOUT NOTES

(By "Scouter.")

Auckland held a rally last week, when over 400 Scouts were on parade, and were inspected by His Excellency Sir Charles Fprgusson. Our rally is to be held on the 10th of April, and although it is regretted that His Excellency will not be with us, there should be about .1300 Scouts on parade for this occasion. A meeting o£ Scouters and delegates from Troop Committees was held in the "Den" last Saturday evening. , Although there was a poor attendance, officials were elected for the rally, and it js hoped that Scouters will show the. usual interest and keenness in the training of their troops for the various events that are to be shown before the public next month. This is theone day of the year when we have the opportunity of showing our parents and friends what Scouting for boys can do. Now it is up to you as well as the committee to "be prepared." ■ . During the last week our commissioner visited the Kaiwarra and St. Paul's'Cathedral Troops, and also addressed meetings at Karori and Eoseneath. Scouts should be encouraged to obtain the first-class badge, before' they devote their attention to' the various proficiency hobby badges. To obtain first class t the Scout gains an elementary knowledge of signalling, tracking, cooking, swimming, Morse, and ambulance. Why not continue the study and gain .the proficiency badge in each of these subjects having already learned them to gain his first class? ' The following sentence.should be.of in : terest to signallers, as it contains each letter in the alphabet: "They provoked a quarrel by zealously mixing a few jet black cats." ■ , ■. . ' Khandallah Troop held their weekly parade last Friday night, when they practised the rock ceremony, and the Scouts for first-class work studied the circulation of the blood, etc. A parade was also held last Saturday, when a drum was presented by one of the lad's parents. An ambulance competition was held, which_ was won by the Kakapo Patrol, with. Kiwi second. The lads only as yet know elementally training in first aid, but although this was the case, the work carried out was commendable. | A meeting of the patrol leaders will be held in the "Den" on Saturday evening at 7.30 o'clock sharp. Leaders are requested to attend. ■ The great difficulty at the Patrol Leaders' Conference seems to be to find new subjects to discuss, so I am going to outline a few suggestions which have occurred to me. Firstly, "Should a leader also be a Rover?" The great point at issue is ■whether a leader is justified in giving his time to Rovering, when he might be using that time for the improvement of his patrol. Some say that apart from the good of his patrol he owes a certain amount of consideration to himself, and that if. rovering is • going to help him in any way, then he should join. The opposition promptly reply, by saying that by helping his patrol he is incidentally helping himself just as much as if he were Hovering. Anyhow, the problem raises many interesting points, and I can recommend it to you for your next conference. Another subject which I would very much like to hear discussed is "Should Scouters and Rovers smoke in uniform?" This subject will have to be handled carefully and tactfully, and there are some who may argue that it is no concern of a leader what Scouters and Rovers do. Nevertheless I hold to the opinion that the good name of the movement is the concern of every member of it, and that this subject is not outside the scope of a Leaders' Conference. : Is a youngster influenced into smoking when he sees his Scouter puffing a cigarette? Nonsense, 'says the opposition. Why, he can see men smoking in the street every minute of the day, ancLifc he is going, to.be' influenced, that will jolly soon do it. What do you think? Well worked up, this should prove a most interesting paper. Just one other idea: "Do big rallies help the movement, or is the best Scout the fel-low-who keeps to the woods?" Undoubtedly the best Scout is the fellow who spends all his time camping out, hiking, cooking- his own grub, and so on, but in the advancement of the movement there is much to be said of those big parades. ' The District Cubmaster, Mr. Green, has been visiting Wellington packs in connection with the Wolf Cub part of the coming outdoor rally. He has seen"nearly all the packs, and in the majority of cases they are making quite a satisfactory showing. It should not be long before Wellington Cubbing should be able to stand compari- . son with Cubbing anywhere in New Zealand. ' Although many of the Cubmasters have only recently taken up this branch of th~e work, and .in some cases the pack has only been going for a short tinig, almost everywhere a splendidly keen spirit has .'been found amongst them. Being<»a newformed pack does not necessarily mean it is no good at Cubbing, for one of our newest packs gave much the best performance of a certain jungle dance that the District .Cubmaster has yet seen1 You old packs, Dyb, Dyb, Dyb, Dyb, or you'll be getting left. How many packs have got all their six months' old cubs with both eyes open? Has yours? Kindly forward your "notes" to Scoutmastjer (L Meachen, "Ithaca," Thorndon quay, on or before Monday of each week.