GIRL GUIDES

Southland Times, Issue 21773, 30 July 1932, Page 19

GIRL GUIDES

»y * '■ Badge Examinations. Cyclists: This will be held on Tuesday, August 2, at 4 p.m. at the Girls High School. First Class Paper: Saturday, August 6, at 9.30 a.m. at Mrs Mitchel’s residence, Leet street. Meetings. The Local Executive will meet next Tuesday, August 2, at 2.30 p.m. in the Guide Rooms. The Provincial Executive will meet next Friday, August 5, at 1.45 in the Guide Rooms.

Georgetown Company. Last Wednesday, at the weekly meeting of the Georgetown Company, Mrs R. S. Mclnnes (District Commissioner) enrolled the following guides: Louie Birss, Lucy Congreve, Helen Ferguson and Jean Marshall.

Registration Fees. Guiders are reminded that the annual registration fee of threepence per Guider and Guide and one penny per Brownie should be paid as soon as possible. Town Guiders should send their fees to Mrs Mitchel, 189 Leet street, and country Guiders to Miss Basstian, 129 Tweed street. Growth of the Rangers. The Ranger branch of Guiding came into existence in 1916. By that day the girls who had been Guides at the start were getting too old for their companies. Thev wanted to remain Guides, but had to make room for the younger girls. Also many older girls, attracted by Guide ideals, were anxious to join the movement, and it was difficult to put these into companies composed of younger members. At first they were called Senior Guides, but this did not seem quite adequate, and in 1920 the Chief Scout suggested the name “Ranger.” A Ranger is “one who guards a large tract of forest or land,” and thus it has come to mean “one who has a large outlook,” in a sense of responsible protective Julies appropriate to a Senior Guide.” The first conference of Rangers was held in 1922. It was attended by about 30 Guides, and the exchange of ideas was very helpful'. The Union Jack. Every Guide should have a knowledge of the history of the flag she salutes —the Union Jack. It is the British national flag and is composed of the banner of St. George, white with a red cross, for England; the banner of St. Andrew, blue with a white saltire or diagonal cross, for Scotland; and the banner of St. Patrick, white with a red diagonal cross, for Ireland. The first Union flag showed the blending or the banners of England and Scotland at the union in 1603, and was confirmed in 1707. This blending was done by placing the cross of St. George fimbriated argent, i.e., with a narrow border of white, over the Scottish saltire. At the union with Ireland in 1801 the banner of St. Patrick was added, this | being done by placing the red saltire I fimbriated as the cross of St. George, combined with the red saltire of St. Andrew, but not to give undue preference, the two saltires were “countercharged” in such a way that in the first and third quarters the white saltire, and in the second and fourth the • red saltire is uppermost. Properly called the Great Union, the Union Jack | is flown on the jack-staff at the bow | of a ship. j St. George is the patron saint of Eng- ! land. He is generally identified with George of Cappadocia, who was put to death by Diocletian, April 23. 303. According to the Golden Legend, having slain the dragon, he put off his knightly habit, gave all he had to the poor and went forth to preach Christianity, and was martyred in 287. St. George first became recognized as England’s patron saint under the Norman kings. In 1346 Edward 111 founded the Order of the Garter with St. George as its badge, and some years later Edward IV built the present magnificent St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, where, in the reign of Henry V, the supposed heart of the saint was deposited as a precious relic. St. George is also the natron saint of Portugal and of Aragon. St. Andrew was one of Christ’s apostles. A native of Bethsaida, a fisherman, and a follower of John the Baptist, he left the latter to follow Jesus (John 1), to Whom he immediately brought his brother, Simon Peter. With his brother he was one of the two first called to apostleship (Mark 1), to be "fishers of men.” Prominent at the feeding of the 5.000 (John 6), and on the occasion when certain Greeks sought to see Jesus (John 12), he was one of those who on the Mount of Olives heard the prophesy of the fall of Jerusalem (Mark 13). The accounts of his later life are purely traditional. He is said to have preached in Scythia and so to have became patron saint of Russia, and to have suffered martydom at Patrae about A.D. 70, being bound with cords to a cross desussate. . A woman named Maximela had his body embalmed and suitably interred, and part of his cross is said to be in one of the piers supporting the dome of St. Peter’s at Rome. Tradition adds that his relics were removed to Constantinople, whence some of them were taken in the Bth century to Scotland, of which country he is ?lso the patron saint St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, was bom probably near Dumbarton, Scotland, at Kilpatrick, his father being a Roman named Calphurnius,. his mother Conchessa being of British origin. Irish raiders carried him into servitude in Antrim at the age of 16, but, escaping, he became a monk at Tours, was ordained priest by St. Germain of Auxerre, was entrusted, by Pope Celestine I, with the conversion of Ireland, and went to Wicklow in 433. In spite of hostility, he made his way north to Antrim and there met Laoghaire, king of Ireland, at Tara, where he baptized large numbers. He worked for seven years in Connaught and preached in the other provinces, founding numerous churches, religious houses and bishoprics. A famous incident recorded of his early labours was the plucking of a shamrock to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity. Croagh Patrich, at Clew Bay, and the island in Lough Derg, were amongst his places of retreat for meditation and devotion. St. Patrick died at Saul, near Downpatrick in 493.