OUT-OF-WORK BOYS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21345, 21 November 1932, Page 10

OUT-OF-WORK BOYS

IDLENESS NOT INEVITABLI

LORD BLEDISLOE'S OPINIONS

"It is upon youthful environment and opportunity that the true patriot must ever keep a vigilant eye and employ a resourceful brain," said the - GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe, Dominion Chief Scout, when opening the annual meeting of the Dominion Boy Scouts' Council re- * cently. Lord Bledisloe was referring to. unemployment among boys and the value of the Scout movement in keeping boys occupied. " The executive rightly expresses in its report grave concern about the baneful effects of the abnormal unemployment - position upon the older boys who, under ordinary conditions, would have been absorbed in industry," said His Excellency. " So-called 'enforced idleness' is more calculated to undermine character and destroy self-respect than any other influence. I say 'so-called' because, unemployment may be inevitable, idleness is not, at least to one who has had the training of a scout. " Desirable thought it is from the. standpoint of the State and the parent that boys should have remunerative employment of a wholesome character, it is far more important that a boy or adolescent should find some occupation - for his hands and his mind than that he should be paid for it. Indeed, unless he does there is a prospect of the State having ultimately to suffer loss financially and ethically, and a potentially useful citizen becoming a burden both to the community and himself. And the more active-minded and capable the boy, the greater are his potentialities for demoralisation unless scope can be found, continuously for the salutary, or at least the innocuous, expenditure of his energies. " The same individual is often potentially the greatest saint and the greatest sinner, a man of eminence and a debased criminal, according to environment and opportunity," concluded His Excellency. "It is upon youthful environment and opportunity that the true patriot must ever keep a vigilant eye and employ a resourceful brain."

In the course of further remarks His Excellency said he welcomed the increase in the number of Sea Scouts and Rover Scouts, especially commending the enterprise of the latter in connection with the St. John Ambulance Association's work as setting a fine example of useful public service to their younger colleagues.