Boy Scouts’ Important Year

Northern Advocate, 5 September 1941, Page 3

Boy Scouts’ Important Year

In the course of the executive comI mittee's report to the 23rd annual meeting of the Boy Scouts’ Dominion Council, held at Wellington today, the Dominion Chief Commissioner (Mr. Hector Christie) pays tribute to the services of Lord Galway as Chief Scout. The report goes on to say: | “Our new Chief Scout, Sir Cyril Newall. is with us and already in the brief ! space of less than six months he has j done great service to Scouting in New ! Zealand. Sir Cyril’s announcement j that Girl Guiding and Boy Scouting, j are, in his opinion, in the forefront of useful forms of girl and boy training, has given your executive n very i great uplift and we are confident that ! his association with us is going to be of tremendous value. War’s Call “Scouting continues to lose Scouters to war service. We should not look upon this altogether as a loss but rather as a fulfilment. Scouting does not train boys to be soldiers, but it dees lit them for whatever may come their way in life. There is overwhelming evidence that this training has enabled I our Scouters to quickly adapt themselves to whatever job they have been given. "The work of our Training Commissioner in putting emphasis on the patrol system of training and the fitting of Patrol Leaders for leadership in the Troop is bearing fruit, and thus the loss of Scoutmasters has not been felt as severely as it might have been. It remains, however, our major problem. “Throughout the whole Dominion Scouts have been linked up with the Emergency Precautions Scheme and in many areas form a large part of this organisation. In some districts emergency calls are made periodically and the Scouts have reached a high state of proficiency in these activities. Tiie value of Scouters as instructors in j signalling, first-aid work, and other j E.P.S. work, is found to be of great benefit. National Service j “While we appreciate the fact that Scouts are giving their services in these ways we are disappointed that several) suggestions for Scout wartime service \ have not been acceptable to the author- i ities. We have sought for a means to i give the boys a National Service which was solely for Scouts to perform, but iso far without results. It is, however, j kept constantly in mind that the very I Dest service Scouts can render is found jin Scout Training. A big, useful work ! is done in making the boys self-reliant and helpful under all circumstances and a vigorous • policy of working to produce this effect has been adopted. “The annual reports for she past two years have referred to our efforts to secure the incorporation of this Association. This incorporation has | now been effected by an Act of Parliament which was passed in March of this year. The association is now a legal entity. With the considerable acquisition of property by local associations in the past two or three years this was becoming increasingly necessary. The association can now act as a perpetual trustee for Scout property in any part of New Zealand. “During the year we were joined in ! an action commenced in the Supreme Court to test the validity of our right to participate in the distribution of j income from-a trust fund established j under the will of the late Mr. H. K. i Wilkinson, of Dunedin. The court de- j cided that we were so entitled and j therefore the income which we have j been receiving in recent years will con- ; tin ue. j "It is pleasing to note that severalj blank spaces in the Scout Map of New j Zealand have been filled in during the j past 12 months. j “Every worthwhile citizen in these j days is doing his part in the common cause in giving necessary national ser-! vice. We in the Scout movement feel i that we are engaged in one of the most j essential jobs in these, and in fact in I all. times, and are glad to give our- J selves wholeheartedly to the cause. To j the best of our ability we will prose- j cute the work in whatever direction j we may be asked to serve, believing j that the future welfare of the nation j and the whole world lies within the j principles of Boy Scouting.”