TRIBUTE TO THE LATE LORD BADEN-POWELL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22883, 1 March 1949, Page 6

TRIBUTE TO THE LATE LORD BADEN-POWELL

At a service held on Sunday at the Scout Hall, Carnarvon street, to honour the memory of the late Lord Baden-Powell, Brownies and Cubs, Guides and Scouts, Rangers and Rovers foregathered with their leaders and local and district commissioners

The Rev- J. Kingsley Fairbairn addressed the assembled boys and girls, reminding them of their promise and of the Scouting and Guiding •law. Mr. Fairbairn urged them to remember their primary allegiance to God, without Whom their movement could degenerate into a force such as the Hitler .Youth. Honour to a King such as we were privileged to possess was easy to pay. continued Mr. Fairburn. The duty owed to one another formed part of the basis of this essentially Christian association. “Inasmuch as ye do it to one of the least of these, ye do it unto Me.” Mr. Fairbairn delighted his listeners with a pithy description of the species boy, containing the definition “A boy is a piece of skin wrapped round an appetite.”

All that we strive to be is summed up in the 10 points of the Scout law, concluded Mr. Fairbairn. To Scouts and Guides t.lyj world over these were their own “Ten Commandments.” Bible readings were contributed by a Ranger and a Rover. At the conclusion of the quietly-impressive ceremony the boys and girls, standing at attention, renewed their solemn promise, following which the National Anthem was sung with the depth of feeling characteristic of the Scouting and Guiding Movement.