SCOUTS’ CAMP

Evening Star, Issue 26067, 3 April 1947, Page 9

SCOUTS’ CAMP

If negotiations at present in train are successful, Boy Scouts in Otago will be in possesion of a permanent camping site of approximately 2,400 acres in close proximity to Dunedin. The county commissioner said yesterday that the property would be worked as a farm, which was the reason for acquiring such a large area. Smaller areas had been obtained by scouts in the north, but they were a drain on the funds. By working the property it was hoped to make it self supporting. • A programme of beautification and tree planting on portion _of the property was visualised, and it was hoped to make it a wild life sanctuary. It was also hoped in time to establish a picnic ground with fire places for, the convenience of motorists. , In order to carry through this purchase an appeal is to be made to the public for funds, but the commissioner emphasised that this would not be done until tlie boys themselves, living up to the tradition of self-reliance of the true Scout, have raised the sum of £I,OOO. It was pointed but that in three years during the war the Scouts had performed 55;000 hours of community service, and last year a total of 6,300 hours was reached. For none of this work was any financial payment asked from the public, and the appeal to be launched shortly will.be the first for assistance since the war.