SCOUT NOTES

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 181, 31 July 1934, Page 9

SCOUT NOTES

(By “Totara. ,J ) A GROUP CAMP IN ENGLAND CAMPING TOGETHER • “Rho more wo camp together, Tho merrier we shall bo.’' If tho popular camp-livo song is any criterion, Gosforth Park, tho Northumberland Scouts’ splendid camping ground, will bo tho merriest placo in Britain during tho first weeks in August, with 7000 Scouts and Rovers in camp there. Tho Northumberland Scouts have had a great idea; they aro inviting Scout troops and districts from ail over tho British Isles to mako Gosforth Park tho venue for summer camps from August 4 to H. They feel that this opportunity for different troops to camp together at tho same time, and exchange ideas and friendships, will bo of enormous valuo to Scouting. Visiting troops will be allotted separate camping sites in tho bireli. and fir woods and rhododendron thickets which abound, and thero they will live the normal camp life. This is to be no great jamboree, full of spectacle for tho public, but a collection of Scout camps at their best and brightest. Pull advantage will be taken of Newcastle’s situation in a part of England of great historical interest by arranging motor coach tours to the Roman Wall, Alnwick, Bamburgh, and places along the coast. Tho Lake District will bo made easily accessible by a two days’ tour, one night being spent under canvas on the side of one of the lakes. In addition, it is hoped that some of the great industrial enterprises of the North will co-operate in arranging visits of Scouts to their factories. And tho cost for all these facilities and the adventuro of meeting Scouts from here, there and everywhere, will be remarkably small. A camp fco of 9d a head will be charged. Food and general stores will bo obtainable at a canteen in tho camp, or troojis can make their own arrangements with local merchants or shop in Newcastle, two miles away, whichever they find the most advantageous.

GALLANTRY! Tho Chief Scout, Lord Baden-PowclV, has awarded tho Bronze Cross, tho highest gallantry award of the BoyScout movement, to Rover Scout J. A. Stewart, of the Ist North Berwick Group, for his gallant action in rescuing from drowning a woman and her two children who were trapped in a motor car which had fallen into North Berwick harbour. Mrs Jackson Russell, of Dirlcton, was moving her saloon car with Mrs Boyd and her two children, Patricia and Thomas, as passengers, from the public parking place at North Berwick harbour, when, for some unknown Teason, tho car leapt forward instead of reversing. The car plunged into the harbour, which was nine feet deep at the time. Stewart, who was standing nearby, rushed forward, and waiting only to remove his coat and shoes, dived in. Tho wheels of the car -were uppormost, and he had great difficulty" in finding tho doors owing to tho thick mud which had been stirred up. lie eventually located a door and managed to drag it open, despite the pressure of the water. The boy managed to cling Tound Stewart’s neck with his sister in his arms, and he brought them to the surface and handed them over to people in a boat. Mrs Boyd was able, in the meanwhile, to get through the open door to the surface. Although feeling the effects of the oily and muddy water, Stewart went in again to lend a hand to the other rescuers who were attempting to extricate Mrs Russell. He fastened a rope to the axle, and with tho hei'p of a motor-boat the car was turned on its side. Unfortunately by the time Mrs Russell was extricated she had succumbed.

AN AUSTRALIAN “HE-MAN” Eighty miles beyond Broken Hill, towards the interior where the aborigines aro still seen, there is a colonv of settlers who spend their lives digding for opal and other precious stones. They have wireless for a medical service, Hying nurses, flying doctors, and a flying parson. It was learnt that a sick man from the colony tvas being brought into the settlement by his 13-year-old son, who had been a Scout. Soon after leaving his homestead he became unconscious. Tho boy tied hint on his camel and brought him to tho settlement, but he died soon after. At dawn the next day the boy collected the camels, climbed on the back of the leader, and set off on. his homeward trek. His only remark was: ,f I have got to go back. I am tho only man there.”