BOY SCOUTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15902, 13 April 1912, Page 5

BOY SCOUTS.

at work and at play. If you toil for tho land with bruin or hind You loro, and honour, and crown; Britain eay* to each, “Woil done!" Taking aooount of her overy son.

* ' (By VEDETTE.) "VddGtto” frill lie pleased to receive nows or criticism from Scoutmasters or Scouts, or from any person interested in the Boy Scout movement, for insertion in this column. Contributions should reach tho “Lyttelton Times ’’ Office not later than Thursday morning.

Commissioner T. F. Taylor, H.S/W reports that the troops m his district are doing well. Brunnerton turned out well at his insp ectlon n V d the troop passed a good tost in various subjects. Iteefton did well also at the examination and of tho troops and their officers tho commissioner sneaks m the highest terms of praise. A large number or recruits have joined both of these troops and the Westland troops, as a whole, are increasing ib numbers .and efficiency.

The Napier City troop, which was reported to have ceased work, is still going strong. A troop sergeant writing of this troop says:—“ I have been a member of tho city troop ever since tho scouts were first started here, and wo liavo all along been flourishing. Wo had a good camp and a good demonstration lately, though wo don t get much encouragement from our District Committee. Mr Lovell does all he can for us, and at his home we learn various instruments and we have a complete set of telegraph instruments, too. We are now arranging to set up a wireless installation. ’ The Chief Scout, Colonel Cossgrovo, will endeavour to visit Napier on his way to meet tho General next month, and will try to settle the long-standing differences between the District Committee and the officers.

Mrs M. Moss speaks most hopefully of her patrols of boys. They are keen and particularly anxious to do good turns. “ Mind, writes Mrs Moss “that the scout training has a good effect upon them in their homes. Even tho parents talk of ‘ doing a good turn*” One of her scouts, a young man of 17, who, by the <vay, is nearly related to a noble lord, was ; so impressed with tho scout law and promise that ho went home and destroyed lus pipes ana cigarettes, as, perhaps, some day he might be an example to other men.

General Godlev has informed Colonel Cossgrovo that the Senior Cadet uniform is a shirt and shorts, practically exactly tho same ns those worn by the Boy Scouts, but the “ 8.P.” hat wiU be tho distinctive- feature Those Senior Cadets who are also Boy Scours will provide their own hats and the Defence Department will allow them the oontract price of the Senior Cadet hat.

Bv tho arrangement sanctioned by the Cabinet last year Bov Scouts who were Senior Cadots wore to be a shirt with two patch pockets, khaki shirts and a B.P. hat. haversack, neokerchief and colours were to be pro Sby tho Scout. The arrangement has since been altered to what the General now says, so that the circular S out by the iate Colonel Hawkins will have to he cancelled. Colonel Cossgrovo is circularising commissioners throughout the. dominion on tho subject and is quoting General Godley’s remarks. It is tho Scout officials to find that the General has been so considerate as to grant the request of the Dominion JW Scout made at the conference held last year that Boy Scouts and Senior Cadets should wear shirts, with the . hat as a distinctiori. This suggestiqrn was also made ■to Major M’Donald, who did not approve But General Godley, with hie usual tact and penetration, at once agreed that the idea was a good one, and now, according to his letter the nmforms are identical except for the hat. No doubt j some big boys will be ashamed to show i their bare knees, but it should be some solace to them to know that whole regiments of our soldiers now wear shorts, and that nothing looks smarter than shorts, while nothing m more slovenly-looking nor more unhealthy than “slacks.”

The following gentlemen have accepted seats on the Dominion Headquarters Council of the Boy Scout movement :-Tho Dominion Chief Scout; Colonel Cresswell, V.D.; Major C. P. Fenwick (commissioner); Sn.rgeon-Gap-tain H. M. Inglis (commissioner); Mr H. W. Bishop, S.M.;. Mr T. S horter (Chief Inspector of Schools); the Rev W. H. Orbell. H.S.W. (vicar of Woolston); Mr J. R. Douglass (quartermaster) ; Mr H. S. J. Goodman. H.S.W. (hamster); Mr J. J. Bengali (Mayor of Christchurch), and Mr M. H. Babcock (headquarters secretary). A meeting of the Council will he called shortly, when officers will ho elected, other names proposed, an executive appointed, nn<t tho approaching visit of the General discussed.

The following interesting article by Gonoral Badon-Powoll. in the Headquarters Gazette” will ho l'ead with interest by All who know' anything ot tho Scout movement, Lord Haldane’s new hook, Universities and National Life,” reproduces, among other interesting papers, Ins address to the Students- of University College of Wales, 1910. His remarks apply* so aptly to Scoutmasters and the higher aspect of their work that I am impelled, in commending it tor perusal, to quote one or two points. Lord Haldane advises young men to tako up a line of work such as is worth the devotion of their lives, and to concentrate their energies upon it. He warns them that our British tcn> perament and training is apt to pugames on too high a plane—often to •the.detriment of more valuable work in the world, and therefore ultimately to tbe detriment of men s o.in happinoss when they begin to roa l ls ® * in their true proportions and see how little games count, and how Rieatly their own deeds tell in lifo s balance 61 Ho advocates the study of the iires of great men, living or dead, apd the selection of one or other as o | giving ideas. Hero-worship °f , cannot but do a young man good and bo helpful to him m shaping character. . » f> “ An Alexander and an. Anstotle, mites Lord Ila Wane, a a Goethe are super-men but super men in virtue of wholly differ®* 1 S 1 from Above. Tho character , greatest men are .the greatest the world possesses, and we d , to be constantly reading records always stimulate and some inspire.” - jTho highest work that a man can ao in' this world —and it brines w tho greatest happiness to_ the , is the fact of doing good to • What . Lord Haldane .suggests m students at a university is equally, plicable to (scoutmasters in our ® . ment, with tho addition that the H master has the better opportimity carrying the principle into effect, states it thus:— ,_i_ n “ Your way is clear • • • /W«t with all your power to make the ruii use of what you have got and to 1 part it to those around you. P, thus that you will fulfil the higbes duty of life—of striving to develop tfl soul of the people to whom you By. long.” . vt' Grasp in your mind the higher ni® of our training as your guiding star. “ Nothing is so expansive as the train of thought suggested by an idcia that.

is roallv great; and if it has been fully g. asped. nothing transforms .tho whole outlook in the fashion that its suggestive power dors. . . . As wo advance along the path we see more and more new territory to traverso, new heights to scale, which arc accessible only by patient labour (which a Scoutmaster knows only too well!), but the scaling of which promises us a new sense of possession. And the endeavour, apart from tho result, brings its own reward.” George Eliot, in “ Romola,” similarly writes: “It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own narrow pleasures. We can only have tho highest happiness such as goes along with being a great man —b.v having wide thoughts and as much feeling for the rest of the world as for ourselves; and this sort of hapniness often involves so much'pain that wo can only tell it from pain by its being what wo would chooio before everything else—beoause our souls see that it is good.”

And so it is with the Scoutmaster — his self-denial, his giving up time and personal comfort, his disappointments and vexations and difficulties, all these are tho pains, the mountain climbings, which become in themselves pleasures as he gets the better of them, quite apart from tho greater pleasure of attaining hi 3 ideal in a troop of well-dcv-veloped little citizens—and, moreover, they are good for him, for all the time they are forming and strengthening his own character.

In fact, a speaker having authority said to me recently: —“If the Boy Scout movement did no good • for tho boys, it is, at any rate, a University for the Scoutmasters.” . And so it may be. To many thousands of men it i 3 giving, incidentally, a training in character which they could not, as a rule, have got in their respective professions or business, and it is all the time fitting them for further success in such careers. The higher tho ideal which each one sets before himself, tho higher will be the character training which he will gain in our University. Lord Haldane goes on in his next address, that delivered to tho undergraduates of Edinburgh University last year, to point out precisely what we do, in our preface to the Boy Scquts’ training, namely, that it is not strength in armaments which Taises a nation to tho highest place in tho world, but its moral and intellectual character.

And this character is only attained by a nation where the individuals composing it are themselves men of character., Mon who work to bring this about (as Scoutmasters and Commissioners are doing) in training the future citizens to be men of character are doing something more than mere good work for their country—they are finding for themselves a new meaning in life.

Our workers who see their work in tills light will find in it a religion such as they can catch hold of: the troubles which wore mountains to the striving Scoutmaster bocome molehills to the koon nation-builder.

“The man who would load others,” goes on Lord Haldane, “must himself be capable of renouncing ... To Succeed is to throw one’s whole strength into work; and if the woric_ involves passage through the portal of renunciation, then the only life which can for us human beings bo perfect ' is the lifo which is dedicated.’ I mean by the expression ‘ a dedicated life,’ one that is with all its strength concentrated on a high purpose. Tho first duty of life is to comprehend clearly what our strength will lot us accomplish, and then to do it with all our might. This may not, regarded from outside, apnear to the spectator to bo the greatest of all possible careers, but the ideal career is the one in which we can be. greatest according to the limits of our capacity. A life into which our whole strength is thrown, in which wo look solely to our duty—such a life is a 1 dedicated ” life —whatever form it may take. The lives of all great men havo been dedicated.”

A Scoutmaster’s life, if conscientiously devoted to tho groat aim, i 3 similarly a dedicated life.

GIRL PEACE SCOUTS. Mrs Allen Bell, wife of Colonel Bell, takes a very keen interest in the Girl Peace Scouts of Hamilton. In addition to her duties os president of Counoil, slio acts as instructor in various subjects, and examiner also. Three girls liave passed their first-class and nine their second-class tests. Most of the troop have become expert in first aid and signalling. Great practice has been gained for homo nursing and core of their own health, and instruction in the care and management of children has been given. Tlio work dono here will be of lasting benefit to these girls. There have been many disappointments and changes of Scoutmistrcsses, so that the girls have become disheartened and some have dropped out. The new district secretary and assistant Scoutmistress, Miss Whit ton, has commenced her duties, and judging from her reports and methodical returns should keep the troop from falling through. Mrs Mary Moss reports that her troop of Girl Peace Scouts is making K rea t. progress, and the subjects that the girls are being taught must make them better women and more useful citizens than thoy would bo without

tho instruction. At present they are mastering the Morse and. semaphore alphabets.

Dr Emily Siedeberg, Chief Inspector, Dunedin, has applied for leave of absence for six months, as she is about to take a trip to Europe. Dr Siedeberg is a firm beliovor in tho Girl Peace Scout training and a great help to the movement in Dunedin.

Tho West End troops are preparing for tho great rally in Christchurch, and several new badges have boen earned. Miss A. Moody and Miss Berry have received tho musician’s badge, and several others are awaiting examination.

The Inglewood Troop is now iri full swing, and great interest is being manifested by all concerned. This troop should havo a splendid career beforo it, as there is the prospect of the officers remaining with it for some time. '

Mrs Watson, of Granity Creek, reports that owing to her inability to obtain a meeting-place for the girls, and to tho long spell of unseasonable weather, the girls became disheartened and have not increased in numbers. She has promised, however, to endeavour to revive interest and enrol as many new girls as possible.

Owing to the Easter holidays little work has been done this week, and consequently fow reports have come to hand. The following oircular letter is being sent out to district secretaries by Miss’Muriel Y. Co&sgrove, headquarters secretary:— , . I am instructed by the Dominion Chief Scout to inform you that General Sir Robert Bade.n-Powell will inspect tho dominion Girls Peahp Scouts as under, when he inspects the Boy Scouts:—May 26, Auckland, Monday afternoon; May 30, Wellington, Thursday afternoon; May 31, Christchurch, Friday nftornoon; June 1, Timaru, on arrival of express; June I, Oamaru, on arrival of express; June 1, Dunedin, 4 p.m.; June 3, Gore, on arrival of express ; June 3, Bluff, on arrival of ex- , press. Councils are respectfully requested to let district commanders know how many girls will probably bo on parade. As they have been advised to assist Councils by marking off a place on the parade ground for their troops, and to help them to make their displays a success, Girls Peace Scout troops will be formed’up on the left of the Boy Scout troops, a little apart. They will not take part in tho boys’ haka, but they will cheer with the others and wave their flags and staves. After the general salute Sir Robert will probably inspect the girls. If the girls are in line or patrol formation they should be given the command “ Change poles” as the General approaches. Tho girls will then change the poles to the left side. The next order will bo “Full salute,” when all the girls will coma to tho full salute, as shown on page 21 of “ Peace Scouting for Girls.” If tho girls'would sing the “Scouts’ Rally,” on page 91 of the same, book, it would be very effective. Councils are requested to assist their Scoutmistresses in selecting subjects for display, and to select only those subjects in wlu'oh the girls are profioient. Any of the following will be suitable:—Ambulance, signalling, home nursing, fire-lighting, or any kind of hand work that will bo interesting to tho publio as well as to the General. Time and place of parade and: other details will be supplied to you by the district commander.