MY SCOUTS

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 169, 19 July 1920, Page 6

MY SCOUTS

TROUBLE IN CHRISTCnURCH.

SECESSION THREATENED,

IvED TAPE RAMPANT

"All .is not well .in the Boy Scout camp," says a Christ-church paper. 'The rift in the movement in Canterbury is widening, and it is evident thai: dissatisfaction and dissension are widespread. The Auckand province is understood to bo making preparations to secede iro-m the Dominion organisation and secure a .separnito charter from the Chief Scout. The trouble is coniined to the hejds of the organisation. The control c/i the Scout movement is in the hands of tiic Dominion Headquarters, controlled appa;iently by an Eiseoutr/e- Committee. Under the Dominion orguiisation ;:re a multiplicity of provincial iieadqunrtors, commission-*.1;^ depv.ty-com-misworierp, and district committees. X.Ti-a amount, of red tap? apparently oniwine:l in these various controlling authorities would turn a- militarist- of the old school green with envy. Seemingly, appointments at the head of the movement a.ro' for life, and evidently reforms are urgently required and the schema of management in uecd.cf a- th'Tougli overhaul, The manual'- lcpori ami br..l-anco-sheet issued by the Excr.iti/e Committee of the Council of tho Dominion Boy Scouts' Association :'a -signed by Lieutenant-Colonel D. C'ossgrove, chairman, on behalf of the Executive Committee. Na information as to the personnel of tho eomaiiittc-e is given in tho published balance-sheets. The public is invited to take an interest in the work of the committee, as, according to the balance-sheet, the sum cf £677 Jls' 3d1 was directly subscribed, and a. grant of £500 made bj' iho GrO'vernment. Tho .salaries and travelling expendi-t-.iro of the. staff and financial organiser aro shown in the accounts as absorbing <£640 11s Id. Nothing is sh:;Hra as having been spent upon tho boys directly, though the largo sum of -£756 0s 9d has been paid out. The No. 1 District Committee, which understood it controlled the Scout movement in Christchurch, apart from diocesan, troops, was cc|mposed of a. number of city business men. who gave their time to the good of the boys. The business men on tho committee have resigned as a.pretest against Lieutenant-Colonel Cresswell, Ooftnmissioner for the Canterbury prov.inr<:\ suspending a King's Scout, Master Collins, of the Merivaletroop, .without consulting tho committee. They state that they feel an undercurrent at work, which, sooner or later, may end with, disastrous effects to the Scout movement. We are convinced that the time may speedily ctom-e when a. public inquiry will ,be demanded1. The Scoutmasters' Association- has also given its members a free hond to resign. A number of scoutnia.stcrs contend that the organisaitii-ou will have to be reformed if the movement is to grow and liva."'