THE BOY SCOUTS:

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 September 1924, Page 4

THE BOY SCOUTS:

The annual meeting of the Hawera Boy Scouts will be held this evening, when all who are interested in the movement are invited to attend. It has always been difficult for us to find any sound reason for the opposition to the movement which has at times been shown by certain people, who seem to see in it the dangers of militarism. The Boy Scout organisation exists not for military purposes, but primarily, for the encouragement, of good citizenship, and in this it merits the generous support of all sections of the people. The ideals which are set before Boy Scouts set a high standard, and the training which (hey receive is such as to make them strong and healthy in both body and mind. People who think seriously of the tendency towards excessive liberty among many of the young people at the present time are gravely concerned lest boys in their teens should let their widely accepted liberties become lawlessness, and in the large cities a good deal of attention is being paid to the question of what is the best course to take to protect young people from their follies. If boys belong to the Boy Scout movement when they are young, and if they enter into the spirit of the movement and observe its rules and try to live up to its ideals, we do not think that there will be much danger of their going astray when they are passing through the difficult years leading from childhood to manhood. The Boy Scout movement provides an excellent means for early training in citizenship, and we hope that in this district it will be strongly supported by tlm people and that there will be many boys belonging to it who in years to come will be able to look back to it as having given them sound training and taught them the duties of citizenship and the need foi each person fulfilling those duties.