Ten Thousand Scouts Attended Pan-Pacific Jamboree

Chronicle (Levin), 19 January 1949, Page 4

Ten Thousand Scouts Attended Pan-Pacific Jamboree

I I - W i 3. ■ ub; ')■'. ^ Wohgh . P,Ark, ■ 3;0 ;miles from Melbouriie, Australia, f10,500 scouts, i/ei)resehMiig''li riatjons, rjecbhtfy gAtheheid,.fof tke Pan-Paci'fic; J.amboree. Troop-LeaderTan Wenliam, of Durham Street, Levin, had the honour of being- sole delegate and emissary for his to.wn — and the Horowhenua district — at one of the ''great^t'gatherihgs of- scouts held in the Southern Heinisphere since 1938. He was one.of the contingent of 118 from New Zealand.. who helped make" up the 337 scputs from overseas couptries, Including Pakistan; Lithuania;-Fiji, China, the Philip.pinesand^alava. :rr 'c : •"

-HPa "love^y'typieally Ausir aliaii spot, set near the upper reaches of tfie "Rivef ; Yarra •aiid ahiong lightly timbered' hills and gullies, nearly 1 1,000: 'spouts built*.^,"' toiyn, mainly of canvas, which had its own post office, shops, banks, sporting arena, swimming pools, busy roads, newspaper, hospital and transport system, where a short time before the bushland had echoed to the sound of bird calls. "We had a great time over there and I am sure we all learned a lot from seeing scouts from all parts of the world at work," said 16-year-ol'd lan when interviewed by a '"Chronicle" reporter yesterday. - Jt was this spirit of learning something about each other — even if it j was only a song — that was the ' very- essence of a Scout Jamboree, he said. Illustrating this point, he said that when the New Zealand-; ers were practising their Maori songs and games, they always had a group of interested scouts round them. indeed, he said, scout trobps in Malaya and Pakistan would shortiy astound their neighbourhood by bursting into a Maori; haka-. The Malayans were espe-' cially quick at learning songs and1 games. However, some Australians and New Zealanders would sur-: prise their parents when they re-| turned home and sang "Pakistan' Zindabad" (Long Live Pakistan) in, fluent Urdu. Huge Camp Set Up 1 The huge camp necessary to house the scouts was set up on ground loaned for the purpose hy the Hon. Lewis Clifford, who had a large property at Yarra Brae, said lan. The camp was built mainly by scouts and was divided into six sub-camps. He had been in su)d•camp No. .4. The New Zealanders built themselves^ a' camp which "re.sembled a Maori pah. There would have been 1000 of them there, but shipping space could. not be found and a contingent of 25 Was *selected to represent New, Zealand. As it was, they had arrived in dribs and drabs, often un.heralded and often at their own -sxpense, until 118 of them were gathered at the camp. Their leader was Commissioner Fred Mclvor. He had served in both "World Wars and . had in. his group both Maoris and Europeans. One boy'from a remote farming district of the Bouth Island had seen trains and trams for the first time in his life when he went to Australia. Although the. Jamboree actually covered only 12 days, lan was in Australia more than a month. When on December 9 he had been •told that he. was to go to the Jamboree, he had had only a matter of hours to cohnect with the plane taking him to Sydney. On his

ArrivaHri Auckland, ffe"had"fdund .that instead of- travelling by flying boat as he had' been told, he ,was to go by a DC 4 Skymaster. At Mascotf a'erodrqihe, he and the •other five boys' accompanying him had been met by the' Scout Commissioner there and taken to Pennant Hills — the Baden Powell training camp — where they had £tayed for nearly ten days, he continued. There they had practised games and "looked over the city." They had then gone on to Cambelwell, a suburb of Melbourne, where they had been billeted in the scout hall. Finally, they had arrived at the camp to prepare for the Jamboree. Obviously proud of his contingent, lan told how when the time had come for the New Zealand boys to give their display, it had roused sueh interest that it was repeated. He also pointed out that the New Zealanders appeared no less than •three times in the film made of the Jamboree. Boys Had Big Appetites Commenting on the food situation — a most important point as any scout well knows — lan had nothing but admiration for the manner in which the job of providing for the enormous contingent had been carried out. "This had rested with Commissioner J. H. Wass and a full time staff of 30. Each day 300 tons of perishable food was delivered to the subcamps by contractors. Meat arrived twice daily and was kept in large refrigerators. More thah ten tons of ice was used daily. Some idea of the appetites which Commissioner Wass had to contend with can be gained from this list of the approximate amount of food which was consumed by the time v the Jamboree ended: Meat 160, 00C Ibs., bread 67,000 Ibs., milk 15,Q0IJ gaHons, tomatoes 20,000 Ibs., sugar 22,500 lbs., gakes and biscuits 21,000 lbs., eggs 10,000 dozen, fruit 200,000 pieces, butter 6500 lbs., jam 15,000 lbs. and potatoes 65,000 lbs.'. And so the great Jamboree cqme to an end. Soon Wonga Park_will revert, at least partly, to its former peace and quiet, and Malayans will go back to their humidity, Pakistanis to their cold, Fijians to their island paradise. However, each and every boy who attended the Jamboree will icarrtf - with 'him the things he 1 learned about other lands and other peoples, and the spirit of friendship which is expressed so well in the scouts' own fourth law: "A scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other scout, no matter to what country, class or ereed the other may belong."