GIRL GUIDE NOTES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 9 April 1927, Page 18

GIRL GUIDE NOTES.

(By “Guider.”)

Last Saturday the District Commissioner, accompanied by Patrol Leader Dorothy Hooper, visited the Patea Company and Brownie Pack. There was a good attendance of girls, and the new branch is going to be a flourishing one. Miss Beamish is to be an additional Tawny Owl there. The vis itors also called on Elsie Cootesmau, the Post. Guide in the Patea Hospital. Phyllis Freeman and Eileen Harrison, of Kapuni, who are joining the Lone Guides, visited the Hawera Companies at last parade. Visiting Guides are always welcome. The Hawera Brownies welcomed back their Brown Owl, Miss D. A. Corrigan, last week after her holiday. Brown Oml had a wonderful time. It is hoped to divide the Brownies into three packs, with Miss Ruth Mills and Miss Southcombe as Acting-Brown Owls of the second and third packs. There are quite a number of Brownie recruits, and the numbers are always increasing. As there are three Tawny Owls, Misses Lysaght, Free and B. Page, we have now six Brownie officers. There are some seventy Brownies on the Pack roll.

Most Guides have seen the vegetable caterpillar which is a native of New Zealand. Quite a number are to be found in the bush near Dawsons Falls. This remarkable production is on the border line between the vegetable and animal kingdoms. First the real caterpillar, while burrowing in the soil, gets the spore of a fungus between the folds of its neck and is unable to free itself. The insect’s body nourishes the fungus which proceeds to grow, and occasions the death of the caterpillar. The fungus fills the interior of the caterpillar with its roots, preserving its form exactly. The stem grows up like a little bulrush, sometimes as much °.s ten inches in height. It is for the top of this stem you look when seeking for specimens. The naturalists’ boolc at the Dawsons Falls House contains some very interesting passages on this subject. With both Guides and Rangers the importance of teamwork is thoroughly recognised. In a Guide company ihe unit is the Patrol which consists of six to eight Guides. These girls work to gether as comrades under their Patrol Leader, who has an assistant called a Second. Each Patrol has its emblem badge, either a bird or a flower. Each Guide wears a shoulder knot the colours of her patrol, and the emblem is sewn over her left pocket flap. The Patrol Leaders have an important and responsible position. Just as the Captain sets the tone of the whole Company, so the Patrol Leader sets the tone of her patrol. It is only with the loyal support and assistance of all tin* girls in a patrol that the Leader and Second can do their best work. Leaders and Seconds help on recruits attached to their Patrols with the Tenderfoot Test, and afterwards with their Second Class. Patrol Leaders should always be punctual and very neat. They should ahvavs be ready to lend a hand.

The Divisional Commissioner, Mrs. F. S. Hodson, and the District Commissioner. Mrs. .T. Houston, attended the Commissioners conference held at Christchurch during the week. The conference programme covered three days. “Guider " has been asked to tell again “the start of it all.’’ In the autumn of 1899, Sir Robert Baden-Pow-ell was shut up ifi the town of Mafeking, in South Africa, “with 700 Irregular -Cavalry and a few score volunteers.’’ He was holding the town for England against a force of over (5000 Boers. Food was running short: malaria and typhoid were killing off more people than the bombardments It looked like a tight coiner. Sir Robert was not a man to be depressed By his \yonderful cheerfulness and inspiration he kept the tired troops going. When he was short of men that lie could not spare one from the walls to carry a despatch, or for orderly duties of any kind, he called for volunt.eeis among the boys of the town. They responded nobly, and he named the ragged half-starved troop his “Boy Messengers.’’ He trained them not as children, but as responsible people. He trusted them, and they lived up to his trust. The siege ended when Mafeking was at its last plucky gasp, and. the Empire was filled with rejoicing, lint an idea had been born. The Boy Messengers had inspired Sir Robert with the idea of Boy Scouts. At first the “sensible’’ and grown up people were very doubtful about the new game. Bui the founder went on weaving all soils of ideas—fairy stories, and old talcs of knightly adventure, the Red Indian lore that all boys and girls have thrilled to at some time of their lives, and animal legends that are as old as Greece and Rome—into one new, bright shining pattern, a magic earpet. for the boys of England to fly away upon into the big adventure of the out-of-doors. The boys appreciated the magic, ar.:l Scouting grew apace. Then came the day when some Scents gave a display, and invited all their friends and relatives and Sir Robert, to come and see the sort of things Scouts can do. A little party of girls watched while their brothers and cousins showed their skill at first aid, signalling, camp cooking, tent pitching, knot tying and all the dozens of other things they had learnt in Scouting. The girls felt envious. They could learn many of these thrilling accomplishments. Why should the boys have all the fun? When the display was over they took their courage in both hands, and asked the Chief Scout if ho would have Girl Scouts as well as Roys. The chief said: “ Why not?’’ Then he went homo and wove more magic. He used the c.ld glowing threads of romance and fairy lore nr.d legend, but the pattern was not a makeshift alteration of the first one. It was a brand new one. specially created for the now need —Guiding. It began, as Scouting had begun, in a very small way. At first there was a mere handful of companies scattered up and down England. More and more girls wanted to join in the game, and it overflowed into the Colonies, into Belgium, and thence all ovorEuropc and the world. There are now over threequarters of a million Guides, belonging to some thirty-two different nationalities. The story is one no Guide can ever tire of hearing or recounting.