Boy Scout Week

Northern Advocate, 19 February 1942, Page 2

Boy Scout Week

I In connection with Scout Week, the Mayor (Mr W. Jones) has addressed the following letter to citizens: I “The appeal made to you by Scout Week jis an urgent one. All fit scouters of military age are overseas applying the lessons j scouting has taught them. The older boys, :to whom scouting looks for junior officers, j are, as they reach an age to take a warrant, mobilised. The movement needs j men to assist, and to direct it. The boys are therefore eager to join and be of service. Reasonable age is no bar to this ' grand work. Men of 50 years and over i without previous knowledge of scouting ! have proved themselves fit and capable. | Returned men who are not fully physically fit can take up this national work which is second only to the war effort and is definitely of assistance to it in many ways. As an enrolled scout I ask you to send your offers of service and assistance to Mr F. G. Coleman, c/o Health Department, Whangarei, who will advise I you as to when and where your help will ibe of most service.” | Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M., has written jas follow's: i "I gladly accept the opportunity of J writing a few words on the Scout movement, for it fulfills in a splendid way one (of the prime requirements of healthy i normal boyhood. “Every boy passes through a stage in ! his development when certain strong j primitive urges come up from the dim prehistoric background. For example, he j ! loves to chase and hunt. He wants to run I with the pack and seek the companionship of other boys in these pursuits, j There is a tendency to be boisterous and j destructive, and this sometimes brings [ him into conflict with authority. Quite a number of cases which come before the I magistrates in the children's courts con- ! cern boys who have been in such mischief. But at the bottom there is generally nothing abnormal in such boys. Their impulses have not been wisely controlled. “The Boy Scout movement provides the perfect agency whereby these natural and necessary tendencies of boyhood can be turned to the best account. These very qualities in the boy are the foundation upon which vigorous manhood can be built. In scouting the boy finds a soulsatisfying realisation of his urge for activity and the company of his kind. He revels in the lore and practice of the out-of-doors. He learns habits of concentration and ways of discipline. His natural tendencies are directed towards building a strong useful and manly character.”