THE BOY SCOUTS

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18258, 20 February 1931, Page 7

THE BOY SCOUTS

INCREASE IN MEMBERHIP

LORD BADEN-POWELL PLEASED

THE IDEAL OF PEACE,

AUCKLAND, Friday. “New Zealand started with a very fine lot of boys when the movement was inaugurated here," said loi, Baden-Powell, Chief Scout, on amval by the Rangitata, “ and the lot i saw at the jamboree in 1929 were oredit to the country. The returns and reports from New Zealand na shown that their numbers and u e quality of their work as represented in the badges won are going up. “ The increase in membership oi the Boy Scouts for 1930 was j.a0.000. There are now 2,030,000 member a, distributed among 42 nations. One o our most remarkable successes ha been in India, where last year the numbers increased by 26,000; we ra more Scouts in camp than ever and more Scoutmasters went through the course of training.” . Another point emphasised by tne Chief Scout was the even distribution of the Scouts throughout the Empire. A Game, Not a Sclenoe.

“ Scouting is a game, not a scienoe continued Lord Baden-Powell. That is what lots of people do not understand when they first take it up. dne movement is not simply the 2,000,000 members that I have mentioend, as tli ere are those who have been through and have grown up, making a body of, perhaps, 5,000,000, all of whom have the ideal of peace before them.”

LADY BADEN-POWELL.

HEAD OF THE GIRL GUIDES

AUCKLAND, . 'Friday. Lady Baden-Powell, Chief Guide, arrived with her husband by the Rangitata. . . „ „ ~ In an interview the Chief Guide said that from small beginnings in 1910, the Girl Guide movement had grown into the widest of all organisations for girls, embracing 800,000 young people in nearly every country in the world. “Our membership leaps up by an average of 50,000 every year,” she said. . “As an Englishwoman I am naturally most interested in Lhe girls of the overseas Dominions,” added the Chief Guide. “They are doing great work in Canada, and the movement is particularly strong in South Africa. One of the 'things we are most keen about is the healthy development of the children.” ~ , Lady Baden-Powell said she was looking forward immensely to meeting the Guides of New Zealand for the first time.