SCOUT MOVEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 65, 14 September 1933, Page 22

SCOUT MOVEMENT

HUTT VALLEY AND BAYS

The fourth annual meeting of,the Hutt Valley and Bays Boy Scouts district was held on Monday. In its report the district committee stated that the arrangement of meeting' every two months had proved most eatisfactory, enabling closer touch to be kept with all groups than when meetings-, were'held, each quarter. In summarising the activities ot the year the report mentions that at the rally ot youth held at Lower Hutt on Sunday, July 30, under the auspices of the Hutt Valley Christian Youth Council, the district supplied over "a third of the con-' gregation. In, the AVellington metropolitan area competitions the district was successful in winning the "Mapping and Sketching,". "Observation and Deduction/ and "Canipcraft" sections. The teams for first aid and morse and semaphore signalling, although they did nof win, did very creditable work. The Chief Scout for the Dominion, Lord Bledisloe, awarded the association's "Honorary Medal of Merit" to the Ist Lower Hutt and St. Augustine, Petone, groups for long eervico and excellent performance iii Scouting, the first awards of their kind made to any group in the Dominion. Tho dietrict was further honoured by tho appointment by Dominion headquarters i>f the Rev. G. V. Gerard, M.A., M.C., as a deputy eamp;chief, and Mr. J. \V. Bugg as an Akela leader for the training of Sco'uters. Gihvell "Wood Badge" training was well supported during the year, both, in the practical -and theoretical courses. The appointment of Mr. H. E. Browne as a commissioner and Mr. C. Halford as an additional district Scoutmaster would make for a higher standard of efficiency, and facilitate the visiting of troops, packs, crews, and group committees. A badge examiners' board bad been set up, and a list of official examiners drawn up and furnished to all groups. The object of the board was. to standardise all Scout and Gub test work, and also, instruction. With all census returns for the year ending September 15, 1933, to hand, the district showed a decided increase in numbers, in.spite of a year of hard struggle against severe odds. There were 352 Wolf Cubs, 360 Scouts (excluding Sea Scouts), 30 Sea Scouts, 25 Rover Scouts (excluding Sea Rovers), 10 Sea Rovers, and 77 Scouters (including commissioners and district officers not attached to groups), giving a total strength of 854 active members. This did not include group com-' mittees (177 members) and the Old Scouts' Association, which haß 53 members. The increase in active membership was 101 over the previous census. The report mentions a great need of suitable persons to help in the work.