INFLUENCE OF GUIDING

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 987, 2 June 1930, Page 6

INFLUENCE OF GUIDING

GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S ADDRESS PLEA FOR EMPIRE IDEALS Thirteen hundred girls, clad in the smart blue uniform of the Girl Guid- s who assembled for the annual parade in the Town Hall yesterday, listened with rapt interest to an inspiring address by the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe. The ideals and principles ol the Guide movement were discussed by his Excellency, who appealed for the carrying on of the ideals which inspired the people during the war. The big assemblage of Guides and Brownies, which densely packed the body of the hall, was almost equalled by public interest, which was reflected in the thronged galleries. The colourof the various troops were paraded ur to the platform, where they remained throughout the ceremony. One of the main objectives of Guide teaching. Lord Bledisloe said, was to dispel ignorance and to inspire selfreliance, which, with resourcefulness were the greatest aids young people could have in life. Happiness, to be full and complete, must be confident and not diffident, and it must be founded on the capacity* to do things by co-ordination of hand and mind in friendly sympathy. His Excellency impressed upon Guides the necessity of observing the law of loyalty to the King, which came second only to loyalty to God. Ho pointed out that this fealty must not only embrace the monarch but also to the institutions of which the King was the symbol and embodiment —the British commonwealth of nations and the law, which from the time of the Magna Charts had stood for justice and liberty to all the King’s subjects, irrespective of class, creed or colour. “We must not merely think, talk or even wave flags imperially,” said Lord Bledisloe, “but we must act imperially and this depends largely upon our character and our daily activities.” The Guide law, lie said, contained a splendid practical epitome of imperialism as reflected in the aims of gentleness, self-reliance, love, mutual help and joyfulness. llis Excellency warned the assemblage against one of the pitfalls of insularity, which was a tendency to gossip unfairly about men and women. He appealed to them not to do so, as gossiping in this way was not a custom which was in keeping with the traditions of national greatness. “PULLING THEIR WEIGHT” “There are many who are not quite pulling their weight, but in most cases they are idle and lazy through sheer ignorance. An enormous amount of time and effort is spent by people of all classes in trying to conceal their own ignorance. “We sometimes hear people of a gloomy disposition ask whether the Great War was fought in vain, or whether, having won the war, we are setting ourselves on the right road to win the peace. I have no doubt what-

ever as to the answer to that, when I consider the three great movements which now exist in the British Empire. They are the Boy Scouts, the Girl Guides, and the Women’s Institute.. It is noticeable that two of these movements are women’s movements, and it rightly indicates the increasing power for good which women exercise in the world, and particularly in the British Empire. It is in the homes of the people that the greatness

of the Empire was founded and will be continued.” Lord Bledisloe added that the chairman and commissioner, I.#ord and Lady Baden-Powell, would visit the Dominion as his guests next year, and he trusted the welcome that would be extended to him would rival that of iiis own.