YOUTH CO-OPERATES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 21 December 1937, Page 3

YOUTH CO-OPERATES

SPIRIT OF GUIDING freeing ok "oneness" • Contributed) Now Zealand is rntlicr a small country and its population is also small, and like so many small things, perhaps a trifle self-satisfied.

We like people to come here and say that our scenery is too marvellous, and that we speak the purest English in the Empire, and that the world casts an admiring and envious eye on our legislative experiments. It make? us feel all grand and cosmic. Minoi complaints about bad cooking one dowdy women are 100 trivial to be taken seriously.

But to anyone capable ul taking . wider and longer view we have still a few weaknesses that could be beneficially tackled from within. Ariel the first great weakness that, in such a small country, is glaring apparent is the lack of co-operation between the various devices for improvement, both in sympathy and effort.

All social service should surely have as its goal some recognition of the fact that it should be as easy to bind people together by their fundamental likenesses as by their super-imp. iscd differences. If the cords that bind us are strong and universal, it adds a zest to life that some should be wreathed m fruit and flowers and some uncompromisingly unadorned. It would be a tragic, dull clay if individuality were crushed out of existence.

Many people confuse individuality with individualism, and dictators try in their muddied way to stamp out both: but there is one thing they arc not muddled about, and that is the necessity of instilling their training very early. We must begin with the young. All these rather jumbled thoughts in my mind at the Wellington Girl Guides Campfire recently. It was a perfect evening and perfect setting high on a hill looking down on the landlocked harbour and away out to the eg on sea. The guides formed an eager ring lound the campfire within their circle, each tossing her little candle to make the flames leap higher, while a clear voice called:— “From north, south, east end west, sparks appear to light -the beacon of friendship, kindliness and peace. To those now far away across tne water who are under the shadow of misfortune. we offer our tokens of help and send thoughts of goodwill and peace. From this beacon may the Spirit of Goodfellowship between peoples of different races spread his wings and scar to the four corners of the earth.”

Beautiful words and beautiful symbolism!. In the hush that followed for a moment, the flames flared up and one felt that something real and true was indeed speeding on its way. It was heartening to reflect that at this time all over the country similar beacons were alight—the Guides of New Zealand doing something as one man to help the Red Cross alleviate suffering in the far East —in fact cooperating! The Chief Commissioner’s few words towards the end struck the right note. She stressed the feeling of "oneness”

! with the whole wide world and with 1 all other Guides in New Zealand, all doing Hie same thing at the same time that night, and responding without hesitation to the appeal from the Red Cross to help in the alleviation of pitij ful suffering. I Lights were springing up over the i city and dusk was softly falling as “Taps” was sung—clear, shrill music j that can reach the deafest cars and i thrill the most prosaic heart. | It seemed a hopeful sign that a ■ I movement which devotes itself to the ' training of youth in initiative and character chiefly by means of happy unfettered open air association should not be closed to sympathy for suffering; even though far off. and should, in co- • operation with another world-wide movement, send its practical help far overseas. These beacons, lighted at the same moment all over New Zealand, show! not only value of concerted effort and | the picturcsqucness of a charming! ceremony, but also point to an ideal- i ism and breadth of vision that seems) denied to many who wish to set theit I mark on the young. May the spirit of Guiding spread ever upward and outward, and may its' beacon never sink to the -o/l grey) ashes of disillusion, and may those who expound it never fall by 'he wayside overcome by formalism and hampered by short sight.