TRAINING YOUTH FOR CITIZENSHIP

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 12, 9 October 1943, Page 4

TRAINING YOUTH FOR CITIZENSHIP

Value Of Scouting PREVENTION OF JUVENILE CRIME The danger of optimistic complacency, based on annual reports and statements of accounts, was stressed by the Dominioq Chief Commissioner, Mr. H. C. Christie, addressing the annual meeting of the New Zealand Boy Scouts’ Association in Wellington yesterday. There were in New Zealand a'bout BS,OOO hoys of scout age, he said. Of them, IS,OOO were scouts; what of the other 70,000? “We have in our hands one of the best, if not the best, of secular systems of youth training ever devised,” he said. “It has the goodwill of all the civilized countries of the world—and that goodwill brings us in New Zealand all the financial backing that our work requires.” It was a system that the boy accepted of his own volition. Given the leaders the boys would be there. . , “What are we doing with this great opportunity?” he asked. “Don’t let us imagine that we have 18,000 boys who have made the Scout promise and learnt the Scout law, and are determined at all costs to stand to their promise and obey the laws. Most of the boys are sincere. Some are in the movement only for what they can get out of it—-but they are in the movement, and it is our duty to change their attitude to a higher one.” Of the other 70,000 boys many were catered for 'by other useful youth movements, but there were still too many left unassociated with any organization. This group represented at once a problem and a responsibility. Members of Boy Scout councils should be concerned about the welfare of all boys. The reply would be that the boys were welcome and the movement was ready to take them in. . It was true they were welcome, but to find room for them was another matter. The problem of finding leaders fully to replace those on active service would have to be solved before there was plenty of room. In this connexion the Returned Services Association had gladly offered its Between 50,000 and 60,000 boys needed some such thing as scouting in their lives, not only for their own good but for the good of the country. “The newspapers have been giving us evidence of this in eevr-increasing quantities for some time —evidence taken from the lips of .magistrates and other men in touch with the problems of juvenile crime and depravity,” said Mr. Christie. “Bad as the criminal aspect of the case is, it is unimportant compared with the state of moral depravity, specially of a sexual nature, into which this country has run in recent yfears. Legislation cannot better the position except to the extent that it might prevent the sale of goods providing immuniy from dire results of sexual licence. And it is doubtful if such a deterrent would work much good; it might even .bring worse results. I do know that the evil is there, and I feel it can be eradicated) only by correct upbringing and instruction of our boys and girls. “True value in man lies m the ability to choose between right and wrong and the strength of character to act on that choice. These things are not inherent or self-acquired; they come only from training. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with (New Zealand boys. They, are splendid fellows, full of life; but they must have an outlet for their energies. If this is not provided they . get into trouble and are likely to drift into crime and worse. . . . Our educational system is good, our teachers are fine men,, but the fact stares us in the face, that neither physical fitness nor education in the technical sense, nor both together, are sufficient to ensure that a boy shall, grow up aright. Something more is required—and 'that scouting provides.”