The Chief Scoul Jalks

Taranaki Daily News, 22 November 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

The Chief Scoul Jalks

BADGE EARNIN^'AND HUNTING, ■ - ' \ f (By Lt. Gen. Lord Baden-Powell.) Scouts who join a troop merely because they want to go to camp and have a holiday are apt to slack off when it comes to having to work, hard for proficiency badges and for the general efficiency of the troop. They are inclined to shirk having to turn out on parade nights when the weather is cold and dark, 'and they probably soon give up scouting altogether, And-they are never any loss to the troop!

iiiiiiiiiniiniitniitiiiiimHinnuiliiiitiinici'iiiiiiittiiiiiiiiHiiH The good scouts and true will stick to their troop and group through thin times as well as thick, in working time as well as' in camp-time- They will be wondering what they can put into scouting to make it better rather than what they can get put of it, I hope all your scouts are of this latter sort. 1 But I was going to pay something about proficiency badges. There are over sixty proficiency badges which can be earned by scouts, but it is not the intention that every scout should try to earn all—or'even a very large number—of

them. '.The reason why there are shell a laro'e number is that a boy can thus choose' for himself the subjects which specially interest him or in which he feels tk%t he can do good work, looking to the future. In this way you can often gain an idea of .what your future work in life will be, and so badges will havp helped you eventually to be a “square peg in a square hole” and not in a round one. In any case they will give you the taste for hobbies and handicrafts, some of which are certain, sooner or later, to help you in your career. go. look t—rough. the list of scout proficiency badges and-make up your mind which are the ones for you to go in for. Remembertoo, that while all of these badges help you to help yourself personally, there aresome, more than others, which help you to help other people. Aiid that is bne of the things ta aim at in scouting. , what we call the “Public Service” badges include ambulance, cyclist, firemen, horsemen, Interpreter, marksman, pathfinder, public health man, rescuer, signaller, pilot, coast-watchman. You cannot be a .King’s Scout without possessing at Ipast four of these badges, of which the ambulance badge is one. Many hundreds of lives have been saved by scouts through their having earned Athe ambulance, fireman’s, rescuer’s and such badges. .. BADGE HUNTING. Don’t go in. for badges merely with the idea of seeing hint many you can pick up in as short h.'time and with as little trouble to yburSelf as possible. That is not badge -earning, but badgehunting, quite anotlmfcjthing. Satisfy yourself, as well as your examiner, that you really do know your subject before putting up the badge. We do not want a'scout to be 'a “Jack of all trades, niaster of none." Rather we want him ; tq, v know “something about everything, and a good deal about some things," and particularly about those things which will help him to do his good turns to other people.