SCOUT JAMBOREE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 83, 10 April 1939, Page 5

SCOUT JAMBOREE

HERETAUNGA SITE

PICTURESQUE AND SUITABLE

A CANVAS SUBURB

The site selected for the international Scout Jamboree, which will commence at Heretaunga on December 27, lies between Wi Tako prison and Trentham Camp, across the railway line to the east of Heretaunga railway station. It covers approximately 100 acres, and apart from its handiness to the railway station, and the naturally dry nature of the soil, it is well and deeply drained, and shelter is given by several belts, of trees, while transport difficulties in the case of stores and visitors are practically nil. as existing roads on the ground will largely serve. The camp will be an immense one, by far the largest ever held in New Zealand. It is impossible at present to estimate the number of boys who will attend, but the minimum, if all goes well, will, it is said, be 6000, including .those from foreign countries, and Australia.

FINE CAMPFIRE SITE

This will mean 1500 tents, apart from marquees, stores, and shelters. It will, in fact, be a canvas town with the population of Stratford, with its own water supply. One of the striking features will be the campfire circle, on the hillside. Scouts from Wellington and the Hutt Valley have already put in 1500 working hours at this and on cleaning drains and grubbing gorse, during weekends. They cleared a wide gully of scrub, and burned it. At the head of the gully is a punch bowl hollow, well sheltered from most directions, and with a clear view of a large portion of the camp. It is some 150 feet above the flat. A platform is to be built there and turfed, and it is hoped that the singing and some of the speeches on historic occasions may reach everyone in New Zealand, over the air.

The present entrance to the Rovers' moot is at the side of Heretaunga railway station, but the main entrance to the jamboree will be by a side street about half-way between Heretaunga and Camp Street. The big entrance gate, with a platform from which a few at a time may look round, will be a fine example of Scout work with pole and rope. Headquarters is approximately at the centre of the camp. To the north-east lies the playing area, close to which is a new swimming bath in the Trentham Camp grounds,' the use of which it is hoped to obtain; the market, where everything a Scout needs will be on sale, and which has a fully-equipped photographer's shop; and, further over, about due east, are the hospital and sub-camps 4 and 5. On the west of headquarters lie sub-camps 1, 2, and 3, and under the hill lies a camp that will be devoted to 200 crippled children, who will form material for the traditional good deed of the jamboree. The whole of' the camping portion of the site is on the flat, and elbows round a series of low hills covered with scrub, which will give opportunities for scoutcraft, and will probably provide some historic manuka thumb sticks.

'ROVERS' CAMP.

At present there is little to show the demarcation of these camp sites and the general lay-out. The spot where the Rovers' moot is being held, between the Heretaunga railway station and the hill, will be the Rovers' camp for the Jamboree. It consists of two big paddocks sheltered, by belts .of trees, and with clumps of beech here and there. ' The westernmost will be their night camp, and the other their day camp.- It is an ideal spot for the purpose. Here are being instructed the Rovers, al lover 17, who will control the younger Scouts during the Jamboree. One of the features of their present camp is the tripod flagpole, a triumph of pole building. Some fourteen tons of water pipes to supply the Scout village of canvas will be laid by the boys themselves, who will also attend to the camp sanitation, and the building of all necessary sheds, ablution benches, etc. Each sub-camp will have its own gate, as will the market. There will be two church sites on the western side of the camp, and one on the east. Tennis courts, gymnasium, pistol, and rifle ■ranges will add to the amenities. All told, there will be eight gateways, and it will be necessary to build nine bridges over ditches. Flow in the ditches is apt to be sluggish, and they are being cleaned out periodically. It is the intention that the boys in camp for the Jamboree shall visit the Exhibition en masse on one day. This might provide transport troubles in the city, were it not that they will march through the city. It will take seven special trains to bring them in from Trentham. The use of the racecourse grounds has been permitted as an arena, as well as that of the grandstand, by the courtesy of the Wellington Racing Club. The lawns will be used for events. A great deal of assistance has been re-! ceived by the Rovers in their present moot, notably from the Superintendent of Wi Tako Prison, whose supply of milk and invaluable help in dozens of ways has been much appreciated. The site of the camp is Defence Department property, but the grazing rights are those of the prison. A large number of motor cases was donated by one firm.