ROTARY AND SCOUTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3674, 12 August 1924, Page 5

ROTARY AND SCOUTS.

A PLEASANT FUNCTION. Among its many other activities the Dunedin Rotary Club has taken a very lively interest in the Boy Scout movement, and on Thursday, at its weekly luncheon in the Somerset Bounge, 20 scoutexs were present as guests of the club. The President (Rotarian S. Solomon) before vacating the chair in favour of Rotarian E. H. Lough, welcomed two visiting Rotarians —Rotarian Edmondson (of Napier), who was the first president of the newly-inaugurated Napier Club, and Rotarian Marsden (of Wellington). At the request of the president tne scouters gave an enthusiasto haka in honour of the visiting Rotarians. Rotarian Lough, who then took the chair, said that they all knew there was something wrong with the world, and they could see signs of it wherever they looked. There was an approaching crisis in the affairs of mankind, and it was one with could only be surmounted by a greater degree of friendship, goodwill, kindness, and allowances for weakness, as well as service between man and man. This, he thought, was the aim of Rotary, and indeed its very foundation, and also the aim of the Boy Scout organisation. Both made efforts to make better men and citizens, which was another way of saying better Rotarians. Their objects were identical except that the Scout work was directed at the man of to-morrow who was the boy of to-day. Both taught the joy of service and the cultivation of friendship. In conclusion, he mentioned that the club, almost as soon as it was formed in Dunedin, had pledged itself to help scouting in this city, and he was sure that every Rotarian realised his responsibility in that direction. Rotarian W. F. Meek said that the scouters occupied a very high place in the organisation, and he need hardly emphasise the importance of having scouters of high character, for they were men who came into touch with boys when they were at a highly impressionable age, and the boys modelled tneier behaviour on their leaders. All these young fellows might have been heroes of the football or cricket fields, or other sports (though he did not think they need include bowling), but instead devoted their spare time to the movement. They were doing their best —not talking or dreaming about it —and for the sheer love of the work. Recognising this the club had invited them there that day to give them its assurance of sympathy and help. The speaker then introduced each guest by name, the scouters standing and giving the scout salute as their names were called, and then the visitors repeated the scout law, following with a haka. Scouter Holderness, on behalf of the movement in Dunedin, returned thanks for the entertainment, for it was these “pats on the back,” he said, that gave them a very great measure of encouragement in carrying on their work. He pointed out that they had encountered great difficulties in the past, and there were more to come. All families had their difficulties, but in a troop there were at least 18 boys, all of different types, there was a hard problem to face. Boys were boys all the world over, and if they could get into mischief they would. It was tne duty of the scouters to direct their energies towards the doing of good. Of course it was not to be expected that a boy would be good in his first week, and, indeed, they did not want him to be so. “The cheekiest little devils,” the speaker said, usually made the best scouts, and the best men afterwards. When the movement was first begun the scouters, who were then known as scoutmasters, bore all tne responsibility themselves, with ther n.d o’s, and had no one to back them up. The parents had taken no visible interest, and instructors were hard to get, so the scouters had to paddle their own canoe. Then they received a big bump when the military authorities thought they were getting too many boys, and inaugurated the Senior Cadets. This took a lot of their boys away, and then the war followed, depriving them of many of their instructors. Some never came back, and those who did had grown sick of the sight of a uniform. Fortunately they were in a better position now, and parents were taking a working interest in the movement. There were now parents’ committees, and he did not think that any troop had financial worries. Boys in some places, he continued, were being taught trades, and were encouraged with proficiency badges, the idea being to develop abilities in the right channels in after life.. The scouters themselves had changed, and now they were move like big brothers than masters. In conclusion, the speaker mentioned that there were three sections of the organisation in Dunedin—the Wolf Cubs, of whom there were about 200— consisting of boys between the ages of eight and eleven; the Scouts, numbering from 200 to 300; and the Rovers—which had been inaugurated this year—for boys about 17 or 18 years. Scouter Moore also spoke, and the President (Mr Solomon) paid a warm, tribute to the movement. The singing of the National Anthem concluded the function.