BOY SCOUTS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 3 July 1919, Page 3

BOY SCOUTS.

The Bishop of Auckland, Dr. Averill, paid a warm and deserved tribute to the Boy Scouts as the opening of the new Club rooms of the Auckland Diocesan Boy Scout Association this week. The Scout law, said the Bishop, with its emphasis on loyalty to God and the King, on kindness, industry, truthfulness, and many other qualities, summed up what every clergyman desired to see in the boys of his parish. A good deal of criticism had been levelled at the Boy Scouts over the " militaristic " tendencies of the movement. What Scout training did was to develop in a boy all the good qualities required in a soldier —loyalty, sacrifice, willing service, and discipline. Militarism of that sort was never more needed than to-day. These sentiments were loudly applauded, as they ought to have been. We hear a lot nowadays, about the lack of parental control and the tendency of boys to run wild, and unfortunately it js true. But it

may safejy be said that scouting is largely counteracting that kind of thing, and parents who are wise will encourage-their boys to join the Scouts. Members of the organisation, by the way, won golden opinions from all sorts of people during the last epidemic of influenza in Auckland. The youngsters rendered invaluableservice to the public-during that trying time. And it has not been forgotten.