LOOKING BACKWARD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12065, 21 July 1917, Page 10

LOOKING BACKWARD.

BOYHOOD DAYS RECALLED. RECOLLECTIONS BY JUDGE AND BISHOP. The pesont-tion of shields to Boy Scouts in tho King Edward Barracksthis afternoon induced Bishoip Julias and Sir John Detmi ton to go f back to their boyhood days raid describe sonid of their" experience;) and impressions. They stood on the balcony in the barracks and spoke to tho boys, who wei© drawn in ranks below. THE AGE OF BOWS AND ARROWS. Bishop Julius said that when ho was twelve or thirteen years of ago, ho was i bugler in one of ths Vexv e-arjy Cadet l corps in England. Cadets in thoso days had woe den guns, which looked like real guns from a long way off. As bugler, he attended one of the first —perhaps absolutely thy first—reviews of Cadots in England. It was held in the Crystal Palace, and it was like a modern parade or Scouts, but the Cadet movement then had not dev>aloped, and the Cadets hardly were as useful as the Boy Scouts. Ho might say in passing that ho had watched with great pleasure the gradual growth cf tho Scouts. As a. Bishop in this city, he was proud of the large number of boys in the ranks, who always were r;ady when they wero wanted, and | were, as good a set of little chaps as anybody would wish io meet. In his day, boys' ideas of weapons ran mostly in the direction of bows and arrows. Each, arrow was equipped 'with throe feathers, in order that ii should fly straight. Every boy to-dav also required three feathers. They were: 1. Lovo—-lovo for his home, lovo for his city, love for his country, love for his king, and love for his enemies when he had hit them sufficiently hard. 2. Knowledge. It was something the Scout movement was supplying all the- time. 3. "Work with their hands. Scouts .should profit by the lessons they learned, and, like sailors, should become bandy men With feathers in their possession, they would grow up to be uocd men Many New Zealn riders were being lost, and young fellows were ueeded to taketh:ir place and to preserve the happiness of the Empire in which God permitted the nation to live. THREE GREAT VIRTUES. Sir John Denuiston said that he also had three feathers be wished to show to the boys. They were;— 1. Discipline. 2. Unselfishness. 3. Self-denial. They represented the three leading principles of the Scout movement. As Scouts, boys began to realise the ne« eessity for discipline. Before the Scout movement became, general colonial boys, he was afraid, hardly realised tho necessity sufficiently. The first duty of young people was to obej those placed over them. When he was a boy—it . was some sixty years ago—notions of discipline were very different from those held by a later generation ot boys; and he did not think that the boys of his time were any the worse tor it. Bu v , of cou-so, the conditions then were different; family life certa:::' was very different. It was of grc.it sapor tance that boy : . should learn the absolute necessity for obedience—lor unquestioning and instant obedience. He listed. and that none of the boys m front of hira would have to realise the value of discipline by the same lessons as were being taught to many of their countrymen. He hoped thai the younger generation would live in a time of peace; but the discipline was usui'n], and the lesson should be learnt in youth. Unselfishness was an important qualification in Scouts—it was the idea of living for others as well as for themselves, if possible more for others than for themselves. Self-denial meant not only unselfishness, but also relinquishing things that would be enjoyed, 110 sometimes wondered how youngsters of the present day would educate themselves. "When he was a youngster there wai very little in the way of amusement foif bovs. They said, " Might we go there?" To-day boys said, " When are we going there r" In these days youngsters read comparatively little. He could not help thinking that the place occupied by books with the former generation v.-as occupied now by moving p'emres with boys of the present day He did not like to think what would be the future of a generation brought uri on moving pictures instead cf on wholesome literature. Pictures might be made hicrhly educative and useful, but • how many pictures shown at present could conduce to the formation of character he did not know. If nionov spent on pictures was spent in joining a library, boys would have something to think of all their lives. Ho felt verv strongly on the question. He would lik n to SCO parents and others try to substitute a good library for tho passion for amusement, which seemed £Teatlv to sap the character of those .-to followed it.