GIRL GUIDE WORK DESCRIBED

Southland Times, Issue 23544, 25 June 1938, Page 9

GIRL GUIDE WORK DESCRIBED

WELL-KNOWN GUIDER GIVES TALK

SOCIAL AFTERNOON AT WOMEN’S CLUB

A description of the Girl Guide movement and its activities and aims was given by'Miss Marjorie Knight, of Yorkshire, England, in a talk to members of the Southland Women’s Club at a social afternoon yesterday. Miss Knight, who was introduced and welcomed by the president, Mrs Ritchie Crawford, was recently awarded the Chief Guide’s diploma, the highest award any guider cap get, and she is touring New Zealand conducting training courses for guiders. Miss Knight traced the history of the movement from its small beginning in 1909 through its rapid and enormous growth into the powerful organization it is today. “Guiding is essentially a game, though it is sometimes rather difficult to remember that, specially for executive and administrative officers, who are dealing with committees and books. Like all games it has its objectives. It occupies spare time, and it means more and new friendships. Even the uniform is a help in forming friendships among the girls, for it brings them to the same standard at once.” -In explaining the activities of the organization, Miss Knight said that they covered all branches of indoor and outside life. Every interest a girl could have was included from knitting and domestic crafts to rifle shooting and all kinds of sport as well as academic and cultural subjects. Badges were given for efficiency at any of these. “I do beseech any of you, who are examiners, not to let the guides pass their tests too easily, for we do try to keep the standard of the badges high. Just now we are putting a great deal of thought into the health aspect of the movement. We try to get the girls out into the air as much as possible, and we encourage them in healthy sport and camp life.” BLIND COMPANIES The movement was divided into three groups—brownies for the younger children, guides for girls of school age, and rangers for older ones. Miss Kinght also explained the origin of brownies and how they took the name from a half-fairy, half-human character in an old folk story on the suggestion of the Chief Scout, Lord Baden-Powell. There were companies for blind, ment-ally-deficient and physically-unfit girls, and these had proved a great success, particularly the blind companies, where the girls did just the same things as the normal girls did. Their camps, too, were very successful, and they always had a trained nurse and people who could see in attendance. The Lone Guide system was a splendid branch of the organization. It was for isolated girls, who lived too far away to join a company, and who did all their guiding by letters. “The movement is international. There are guides in every country except Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain and Japan, but these have their own youth movements which are in many ways similar to guiding except that they are compulsory. Our movement is purely voluntary, and therein lies, I think, one of its most important and strong points. I attended a huge guide rally in Denmark not long ago, and sometimes we had as many as 50 different nationalities sitting round the camp fire. “We are a self-supporting organization, but sometimes we have to have concerts and functions to assist our funds, and about the religious side of our work, I think it is well known that we encourage each girl to attend her own church regardless of what it is. “We really think that guiding develops children in mind and’ body, and we try to give them the joy of living as well as teaching them the duty of living.” Mrs H. R. Gibson thanked Miss Knight for her address. Others present were Lady Anderson, Mesdames Stanley Brown, A. Derbie, C. C. Murmings, G. H. Uttley, J. McCrostie, R. Burns Watson, T. F. Gilkison, R. N. Todd, E. V. McKeever, J. D. Gilmore, H. H. Petrie, E. H. J. Preston, A. G. Dickens, J. A. Thomson, L. C. Swale, H. J. Pennington, J. J. Purvis, W. D. Coltman, E. W. Hargreaves, C. E. Watts, C. S. Longuet, M. M. Macdonald, David Jennings, H. R. Kingsland, J. H. Watson, C. E. Just, C. F. Hack worth.

Misses C. McLeod, Stewart, M. J. Cowan, E. Lipscombe, M. Ryan, V. White, B. Swale, M. Manson, Bonnington and C. Cumming.