SCOUTING IN N.Z.

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 117, 13 November 1929, Page 10

SCOUTING IN N.Z.

BIGGER. VISION NEEDED

BACK TO IMPERIAL LBTES

Some plain speaking about the control and future of the Boy Scout movement in New Zealand was indulged in last night at the welcome extended to the Dominion contingent which has just returned from' England where it took part in the International Jamboree.

Some of the remarks made were not for publication, but Commissioner J. B. H. Cooksey, who was in charge of the contingent, ■ was quite definite. "We must get back to the Imperial standard, " he declared. "New Zealand is one of the finest spots in the British Empire, and why should our Scoring be at the very bottom? This is how we found it regarded in England. . . "We 'ye got a long way to go, and we all want to get into it. "We've heard to-night about building up an edifice stone by stone, but it is the cement in between the stones that we want. There was something splendid about the days we spent in England, and that something we will never forget."

He said that the Scouting movement was held in much higher esteem- in England than it was in the Dominion where not a little ridicule had to be faced. Everyone in England greeted a Scout uniform most cordially] This was due to the spirit which was imparted to the movement by the Chief Scout, Lord Baden-Powell, and Lady BadenPowell. The march past of the 50,000 Boy Scouts, all cheering, had been a most inspiring sight, and had converted thousands to the movement, even a Labour JM.P., ; who had been a policeman.

Commissioner Cooksey read a letter which the Governor-General (Sir Charles Fergusson) had received from the Chief Scout (Lord Baden-Powell) expressing appreciation of the bearing of the New Zealand contingent in England. "We all regret that the Gov-ernor-General is not in the movement " said Commissioner Cooksey, "and he would be if things were as they should be. We must have much bigger vision than ever before, and, above all, we must get back on to Imperial lines " Commissioner F. W. Sandford (kew Plymouth) said that it was scarcely surprising that the Scouting movement aid not make more headway in the Dominion. "It is," he said, "because many Scoutmasters do not carry out the spirit of Scouting. Our very first rule is to fear God and honour the Kuig, and yet many Scoutmasters do not believe in God, and some do not even see why we need a King. And yet they sign the rules.'' If the true spirit of Scouting was adhered to, it woufa be one of the finest-things which could happen to the country, indeed, to the whole world.

Sir Alfred Robin, Commissioiier for Wellington District, informed'the returned Scouts that the grou^ system had been authorised in the Dominion while they had been abroad. "I hope this ray of sunshine," he said, "will grow warmer and stronger, and will eventually melt the ice which seems to have gathered in the Bouth ""