GIRL GUIDES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 86, 27 March 1926, Page 11

GIRL GUIDES

Let real interest be established in this column by true lellowship. ® ® A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK. A stitch in time saves nine. If you have great talents industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiencies. GIRL GUIDE MOVEMENT. (Extracts from a pamphlet by Lady Baden-Powell, Chief Guide.) The Girl Guides are a Sisterhood. Tins means that the members from top to bottom are all working together as sisters—older and younger sisters—•from the joy of work. The Girl Guide movement was inaugurated as a means to an end—a means of ensuring the girls having a good environment and the interest of wholesome activity outside the school wall during hours of tree time, when girls very naturally develop the habit , of idly frittering away their time in useless—if not even harmful—occupations. -inr-.iiii * * • Th e movement was granted a Charter of Incorporation in 1915 and has become a recognised national organisation. It is‘absolutely non-party, nonpolitical and inter-denommational, ap- • plying equally to children of all classes and ail nations. Just to mention a few of the countries where Guides are to lie found will show how widely spread the movement is. 'lTiey are in France, Belgium, Italy. Austria, Luxemburg, Norway. Sweden. Denmark, China, Japan, West Indies, America, Africa, Egypt. Canada. Australia, New Zealand, Malta and many other small corners. The girls are formed into companies of about 30 each with their own Guides and the> have weekly meetings at winch they go through the various Guide activities. The company is subdivided again into patrols of some six or eight girls each patrol being under its own girl le.’der. hr this patrol system Jias been found a mt»ans for bringing out m the older leaders the habit of self-control, the spirit of selfreliance and leadership, and the power to manage those under her through her owb strength ol character, her good judgment, and common sense example. bhe gains thus a sense of responsibility. * * » Il developing the character of the girls just at the pliable age we are doing far more than merely helping those who are young. We are certainly doing something towards making their lives better, finer find happier. But wc are mainly teaching and building lor the future. Our country suffers from numberless social ills that we are ( powerless to cure, but all are quit© preventable il only women cope with their work and their duties. * * . • The restlessness of the girls, whose energies must run somewhere, is what it is our business to cope with, and in the Girl Guides we can supply the right lor these energies to overflow into. • • • They bedeck themselves with a simple uniform—attractive and yet serviceable and without frills—one which is a sign of belonging to a great sisterhood extendi ug all over th<, world. Let them bedeck themselves with badges on their arms—after they have earned them through solid work. * • * Learning these then in the form of a game makes the girl wish to go back • into her home to show her people how proficient she is, and tnus comes the steadying influence drawing her back into the home lite and away from the excitements of the cinemas and the lever of unrest and discontent. * • * They realise that there are laws and duties for children as well as grownups. and that they will get more joy and more benefit through playing for their side and serving their leader—may that leader be team captain. Fatrol leader ot Scouts or Guides, or indeed the King of the country—than they get through selfish idling. The Spirit of Service is fostered through the law that bids the Guides <]o their good turn, beginning by washing up the tea things at homo and going on to learn ever so many un-dreamt-of things and to work towards the national good and their own selfcontrolled efficiency. « • » That all-important little self then becomes the second consideration and the well-being of others is of primary importance. It is when the girls and hoys have got that desire for the welfare of the State deeply ingrained in their minds, to the extinction of the purely personal wishes that we may took for n new world and a happier national hie. * * • The world is a garden and our children are the flowers that grow there. He or slie is a had gardener who allows rank weeds to grow where beautiful nlants and trees should have their being. But there are gardeners in legions —willing workers for the good of their country--each digging and delving, sometimes sowing aijjl sometimes reap-