SCOUT MOVEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 87, 9 October 1943, Page 9

SCOUT MOVEMENT

GROWING EFFECTIVENESS

Comment oh the difficulties associated the world over with the carrying on of Boy Scouting during the war years was made in the report presented by the executive committee ot the council of the Boy Scouts' Association, New Zealand branch, at the thirtyfifth annual meeting yesterday. Notwithstanding the hardness of the way, due largely to the increasing demands on man-power for war purposes, the work continued and, even more, it grew in its effectiveness and usefulness, the report stated. The contention made in earlier times that if ever a boy were in future years called upon to take up arms in defence of home and liberty he would make a better job of it through having been a Scout, had been a,mply proved to be right during the past four years. Opportunities for service and the responsibilities associated with them increased with the passing years, continued the report, which dealt with the gift of the "Tatum" farm property to the association and its great possibilities of benefit to the Scout movement and the Dominion. The continued interest of the Chief Scout, the GovernorGeneral, Sir Cyril Newall, was gratefully acknowledged as a big incentive to the workers in the movement, and appreciative reference was also made to the work of the finance committee. Attention was drawn to the fact that, notwithstanding the efforts put forward by those, concerned, Sea Scouting and Air Scouting were not drawing the boys as they should. "Our business is to make citizens, not sailors or airmen," the report commented, "but we have to use a boy's natural inclinations in pursuing our purpose. We want the boys whose inclinations run in these directions to join the Sea Scouts and Air Scouts., Your executive must give earnest consideration to this in the new : year."

The movement's census figures were shown to be down by only 200 or 300 as compared with the previous record year, a position which the report describes as a remarkable achievement considering the reduced personnel among the older Scouters and the increasingly heavy burden of war conditions. Practically all income items in the financial statement showed a -substantial increase;—the donations for the year were the highest since the. outbreak of war—and at the same time expenditure continued to be subject to careful scrutiny and economy.