FIRST-CLASS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 36, 26 February 1937, Page 11

FIRST-CLASS

Congratulations to W. Anderson, of the Heretaunga Troop, upon gaining the First-Class Badge. He won it af ter many tries at one of the tests; you others do likewise and keep on trying and you win what you want to in the end. I want. you chaps who already have the First-Class Badge and also you who hope to have it one day to read these remarks and to remember them. When. you are babies people don't expect muck of you; when you get to Cub age you are expected to do and to think a bit more, when you get to Scout age more still is expected of you, and so it goes on; the older you get the more yoa should use your brams and commonsense. And so it is when you are in the Scouts. When you have only just passed the Tenderfoot test you are only just beginning your Scout experience and you are not expected to be as capable as when you have been in some time and got your Second-Class Badge. But that is, or should be, only a step to the Firat-Glass and when you have, af ter some years, gained that badge tve expect far more of you than we did before. You will have bad experience in all sorts of matters, both in Scouting and outside, and we expect you to have gained some practical knowledge and to have got used to using your commonsense. You will have got your idea of the Scout spirit, for Ihe First-Class is never avarded to a uselesa boy; that wouljl be loweriug the standaru of the badge and would be letting you other holders of the badge down with a thump. And don't forget that commonsense is far more important than brains. A chap may be very brainy and clever at things and yet do the most absurd things that one can imagine. And on the other hand a chap may be thoroughly reliable and do sensible things all the time and yet be rather slow at learning Or in working things out. It is far better, isn't it, t6 do sensible actions and say sensible things than to be very clever and to do so many senseless things that people cannot rely on you at all. There are quite a lot of things in Scouting that are kepfc for First-Class Scouts only to do. We know then *that they will be done properly and that there will be no monkeying about over the doing of them. We would rather leave the use of the larger axes to First-ClaSs Scouts only thau let all and sundry boys go nandliug them. They are dangerous affairs, and a chap is taught how to use them properly be-, fore he can pass that part of the FirstClass.

So jus't remember, you First-Class Scouts, that you have a high standard to live up to and if there is auythiug special to be done it is up to you to do it. If you feel like doing it in a slipshod method, or fooling about whilo you are doing it, don't give way to these feelings or you will be letting dowu those other holders of the badge by making us wonder whether, after all, a First-Class Scout. is any better or reliable than a Second-Class boy. A chap has to have the camping experience before he can get the badge. He has to have the knowledge of ainbulance, axemanship, mapping, cooking, swimming, estimaticn and signalling to pass the various tests He has to he 14 years old, so he is no longer a chicken. Since he has the experience and the Seout Spirit it is just a matter of always using his commonsense, fooling around when it does not roatter, but never doing silly things^ and always pulling himself up short if he feeis himself geing too far in that way, and always cut out the assinine tricks when thera is something to be done. Don't be content to remain secondclass, there is no reason why you should not gain the first-class any more than any of the other scouts. It is only finding out what has to be done and then -setting to work and never giving np till you have won it. You will find that scouting will be more interesting than if you merely sit on your heels and think you are a scout. I have just heard of. a scout from another district who was staying with a Hawke's Bay scout. The latter got to talking about the first-class and the other did not even know what had to be done, and he had been a scout for some yeaTS too!

Whi;h kind of scout are you, the one who eits down and does nothing, or the one who finds out about badges and other scouting iaeas and then goes out and wins badges? Quite oflen I persuade a boy to go in for a part of the first class, knowjug that he quite gool at it. He says that he is no good at it, and doeo not know enough, and so on. In the end I get him to try, and much to his pleasure and surprise, he does well.' Drn't go in for a test unless you know a fair bit, about ix, but for gooduess take don't go and sit down and nevei try just for fear o? n.aking an ass oi yourself through some mistake. Whoever takes the test is not going to bite your head ,off if you do make an error. A scout examiner is there to help you along, and' if you do not know something, he or she will tell you how it should be done. They are ' helpers rather than examiners. The Heretaunga Troop has every one of its four leadeVs now first-class. Good work, that! Let 's see how many new first class Scouts we can get this yeor. You will not all get it by any means, but I know several who are well on to it, teo some of you others now wake up and do your best.— Good hunting to you all! "BIG SMOEB^