The Hawera Star. WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1932 GIRL GUIDES.

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 25 May 1932, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1932 GIRL GUIDES.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera, Manaia, Kaupokonui, Qtakeho, Oeo. Pihama, Opunake, Normanby, Okaiawa. Eltham, Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Whenuakura, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Moremere, Eraser Eoa-d-. and Ararata.

The twenty-first anniversary of the foundation of the Girl Guide movement is being observed this week in a manner in keeping with the ideals of the organisation, personal service for others playing a prominent part in the birthday celebrations. The story of the beginnings of the Girl Guide movement really dates back to 1908, when a small detachment of girls in England began to play the game which had already been started for their brothers by Colonel Sir Robert Baden-Powell, as the founder of the “Junior League of Nations” was then known. Some of these girls actually turned up at the Crystal Palace Rally for Boy Scouts in 1909, and demanded to be recognised as part of the Scout movement. Sir Robert Bacen-Powell was at first not inclined to consider the formation of a girl’s branch, but, after a great deal of thought, he appreciated the desirability of registering a separate movement, and asked his sister. Miss Agnes BadenPowell, to help him devise a scheme which would fit the needs of the girls. The name “Girl Guides” was ultimately chosen, and the Chief Scout adapted his inimitable book, “Scouting for Boys,” for the sister organisation. Many difficulties had to be contended with in the those first years, the chief being the apathy of the public towards any kind of organisation for girls which it was thought would tend towards making them into tomboys and unfit them for their destiny as the future mothers of the race. From small beginnings, however, and the realisation which gradually came that Sir Robert’s scheme actually embraced all those principles of life which would help the girl to a higher womanhood, the movement began to flourish. It is a far cry to those first adventurous days and to the World War which, in 1914, caused such an upheaval in the' 1 national life that scouting and guiding seemed likely to be pushed into the limbo of forgotten things. But that call to adventure which rings through the founder’s book, “Scouting for Boys,” and which is the basis of his scheme for the training of youth, sounded like a clarion call in the ears of the girls. In the towns many of them helped in the military hospitals as assistants to the ward-maids, cooks and laundry-women; in the War Office, the Admiralty and other Departments of State, they acted as orderlies and messengers; and at home and in their club-rooms they made bandages for the wounded, and warm clothing for the men of the army and in the Fleet. In France a great recreation and rest hut for the soldiers was supplied by the Guides with funds earned through their work and was managed by Guide officers. or ex-Guides. In hundreds of ways the girls proved that they were capable of rising to heights such as were undreamed of in the days of their small beginnings. To-day the movement has spread into practically every country in Europe and many Asiatic countries. It numbers one million members.

Lord Baden-Powell, writing in j“The Guider,” the official periodical of the movement, says: “In this sisterhood we have not merely a static establishment of so many thousands of girls, but a continual stream of them passing through our hands to become the future mothers of Thus we have a great power and a great responsibiilty for infusing into this vast field, a new spirit and a higher moral tone, .such as can materially affect the life of the nation as a whole. Tins power repeats itself in each country where the movement. lias been taken up and' brings all into touch and sympathy under a common ideal. Getting the girls, as we do, at a receptive age as Brownies and progressively training them at the enthusiastic period as Guides, and finally giving them the practice of what they have learnt as Rangers, we can, if wo will, produce a ‘ now woman’ of the right type. To this end it is not enough merely to show numbers on paper, or smart companies on parade, but we must produce individual citizens of high character and cheery, helpful disposition.” The movement in Now Zealand has long been a flourishing one under the Dominion Commissioner, Mrs W. R. Wilson, with the Dominion Council Headquarters in Auckland. In April, 192(3. the first companies and packs were formed in South Taranaki by Mrs F. S. Hodson. of New Plymouth, who was accompanied through the southern part of the province by Lady Marjorie Dal-

rymplc, a Scottish Guidcr and a high official of both the Girl Guide and Boy Scout movements in England. Thriving companies and packs were established in Hawera, Patea, Manaia and Opunake and later, one in Alton, attached to the Patea local association. All these companies and packs are endeavouring to follow the aims of the founder in the building up of citizenship through the spirit of fellowship, discipline and service.