Commissioner Of Lone Guides In Northland

Northern Advocate, 29 October 1948, Page 2

Commissioner Of Lone Guides In Northland

“Our object is that every girl who wants to be a guide can be one,” said The New Zealand Commissioner for Lone Girl Guides (Mrs R. S. Mclnnes) in an interview yesterday. Mrs Mclnnes was paying a flying visit to Whangarei. mainly to visit several lone guides at Pipiwai, and left by air for Auckland this afternoon.

Last night she addressed a meeting of the Whangarei Girl Guides’ Association and interested people. Mrs Mclnnes explained that lone guides are children who want to be guides, brownies or rangers, but who live too far away in the country to join an active group.

These children, who work in groups of about 12 to 16. are contacted by correspondence from a guider. Log books are sent cut every month by the guiders, and these are passed round—one girl as she finishes the work in it, posting it on to the next. MANY ISOLATED GROUPS “Northland is well situated for lones,” she said, “for there are many isolated groups scattered over the peninsula.” It was explained that whereas a guide in an active group gets service stars lor attendance at meetings, the lone guide gets the stars by the number of times she answers the work in the log book sent by the guider. The testing is usually done by exguides in the district. Throughout New Zealand there are 22 lone guide companies, six brownie, and three ranger. Membership stands at 250 guides, which Mrs Mclnnes said was low. and 40 guiders. She said that she could handle 50 lone guides without having to get extra guiders. One of the main reasons for making the trip North is to tell people about the lones, and that they exist. BECOME ACTIVE PACKS

Many of the lone groups become active packs when one girl, a lone, tells her friends at school about it and they join, and soon the group becomes too large to be a lone. One source of recruits is from the correspondence schools, which list guiding as one of the leisure-time activities.

Mrs Mclnnes has been commissioner for lones for 16 years and has been the main builder of the movement. Lones have been in existence for 22 years. When Lady Baden-Powell visited New Zealand recently she presented Mrs Mclnnes with the “beaver,” one of the most coveted awards in the movement.

There are only two others in New Zealand who have the award, which is given for exceptional duty.