JUST A YARN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 76, 22 December 1937, Page 3

JUST A YARN

These are the last Scout Notes I ishall be writing before Christmas, and so I wish you allt Scouts, Cubs, parents, friends, a good time this Christmas and the best wishes for the New Year. There will be no Scout Column for a few weeks; many of you will be away on your holidays and we shall be in camp. Next Monday members of the Second Hastings and Heretaunga Troops will be setting out to their camp at Rissington, and for a fortnight we shall forget all about town and enjoy ourselves out in the open. There will be Scouting games in the manuka bush where the chaps will get an opportunity to learn real scouting and stalking; they will learn how to cook decent meals for themselves (some can already do so) and also find out quite a lot of things that only Tenderfeet do when in camp, such» as tumbling over tent guy ropes. Remember, you chaps who are going to camp, what our Chief has said in his book "Scouting for Boys" about camp, "Some people talk of roughing it in camp. These people are generally ' tenderfoots an old baekwoodsman doesn't rough it, he knows how to look after himself and to make himself comfortable by a hundred little dodges." Then later on in the book he says^ "A camp is a roomy place, but there is no roonx in it for one chap, and that is the fellow who doe's not \\%ut to take his share in the many little jobs that "have to be done; there is no room for the shirker or the grouser — well, there is no room for them in the Boy Scouts at all, but least of all when in camp. "Every fellow must help, and help cheerily, in making it comfortable for all. In this way comradeship grows. On service, if one fellow is on night duty getting wet through, one of those left in the tent will be sure to get ready avcup of hot coeoa for him when he comes in, and that is the thing every Scout should think of and carry out. ' ' The Chiefs note to parents. "Camp-ing-out is the great point in Scouting which appeals to the boy, and it is the opportunity in which to teaeh him selfreliance and resourcefulness, besides giving him health. Many parents who have never had experience of camp life themselves, look upon it with misgivings as possibly likely io be too rough and risky for their boys; but when they see their lads return well set up and full of health and happiness, and improved in the points of manliness and comradeship they cannot fail to appreciate the good which comes from such an outing. I sincerely hope, therefore, that no obstacle niay be placed in the way of the boys taking their holiday on the lines suggested, that is a Scout camp. ' '