BOY SCOUTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15267, 31 March 1910, Page 6

BOY SCOUTS.

The friends of the Boy Scouts movement are not altogether satisfied with the regulations which have just been issued by tho Minister of Education under tho Defence Act of last year with respect to the organisation and training of Junior Cadets. They say that an effort is being mado by tho military authorities in Wellington to remove the Scouts from the control of tho body that has brought them into existence and to make them merely a junior branch of tho Defence Force without many of their present distinctive characteristics. It was not tho intention 'of the promoters of the movement, of course, that the boys should receive only a military training. They hoped that by banding tho lads together in patrols and companies under suitable leaders and masters a wholesome, influence would be exercised upon their manners and their morals, as well as upon their minds and their bodies, and that they would be moulded into good men and citizens rather than into export soldiers. There is already evidence all over tho country that their labours are bearing encouraging fruit in this direction. But the military authorities naturally give more attention to drill than they do to manners and the regulations mako this fact abundantly clear. The Defence Act provides that the Minister, "at the request of tho controlling authority,'' may take over the control of the Boy Scouts "in such manner and to such extent as ho thinks fit," but the regulations appear to contemplate tho formation of patrols and troops of Scouts quite independently of the "controlling authority" and without any regard to the spirit of the original movement. " The Minister," one of them reads, "may, on. the recommendation of tho Commandant of Cadets, sanction the formation of a patrol or troop of Scouts in lieu of a Cadet unit at any school, provided that such Scout units shall be under the entire control, in every respect, of the Minister." • Another, as if this were not sufficient to establish the supreme authority of the Commandant, stipulates that "the Boy Scout organisation shall not have any control over any unit or corps forming part of the'Boy Scout branch of tho Junior Cadets." The Scouts, it seems, ore to bo deprived of their present uniforms. They may "continue to wea'r them at special Scout parades and training until they are worn out," but when they are parading' or training with Cadets they must wear "Cadet uniforms With Spoilt badges." All this suggests that the regulations have been framed with little sympathy for the present Scout movement, and we trust that they will bo carefully revised by the Minister himself before they are put into actual operation. It would be a thousand pities if tho growing popularity of the movement were checked by an unnecessary display of military red tape and formality.