THE CHIEF SCOUT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 280, 23 May 1912, Page 4

THE CHIEF SCOUT.

The visit of General Sir R. S. S. BadenPowell to . this Dominion is imminent. From various parts of the world, we have been favored with the views of the general on loafers, and he has returned to 'this subject in Australia, instancing the number of people who attend football matches and the few who play. He has made the accusation that spectators at football matches are too lazy to play. This, of course, isn't entirely true. A crowd of ten thousand frequently collects to see a great football match, -which probably wouldn't be played, at any rate to the extent they are, if there were no crowd, for it is the interest of the spectator that keeps football mainly alive. The idea of thirty men playing among themselves without the spur given by the public is almost unthinkable. BadenPowell's Boy Scout movement would probably not thrive as it does if the spur of public interest -were removed. The defender of Mafeking said that playing the piano in this world wouldn't assist one to play the harp in the next, although why anyone should be censored more for playing a piano than for roaming the world firing platitudes at people one cannot see. We 'believe Baden-Powell, however, got on to rather a new subject when he included in the category of loafers the women of leisure. The football "loafer" is in most cases a man who is working very hard all the week and who indulges in the recreation of watching sport on Thursday or Saturday. It is his form of relaxation. The woman of leisure is too frequently supported by the man who works the hardest. It is of no earthly use Warning her. She is generally the product of a system that makes it -a matter of pride to possess useless dependents. The sixteen hours a day business man is frequently the proud possessor of a •wife 'who lives a life of absolute idleness. - Even so good a scout as Baden-Powell can't alter this. It occurs to one in reading the strictures passed by the General that everybody cannot be a boy scout or a footballer. If the hundreds of . thousands of football and cricket loafers-developed a penchant for playing the game every form of sport would die, for there would be no public and not sufficient playing grounds. Baden-Powell butted in to the labor disputes at -Home, he tried to teach the Canadians and the people of the United States how to live and -what not to do, and he is at present engaged in getting his pictures—and his hat—in the Australasian papers and scolding the naughty grown-up children of the colonies. Still we can overlook his little weaknesses and vanities for his service in initiating such a useful movement as that of the Boy (Scouts.

BA.CK BLOCKERS FIRST. Speaking to a Dunediii deputation, the Hon. Mr. Myers made some remarks that were as candid as they were clear, though they may not have been altogether pleasing to the gentlemen to whom they -were addressed. A deputation had voiced the wish of residents at Burnside for an overhead bridge at the south end of their station, in order to afford easier access to a •well-populated part of the district. Residents of Green Island had made a similar request. But Mr. Myers was adamant. He pointed out that in the case of Burnside an overhead bridge would save the residents & structure would be £ 150. At Green Island the residents concerned would be saved a walk of 254 yards, and the cost of a bridge -would be £l5O, and of two bridges £SOO. But lie did not think they had much to complain about. There were people in the backblocks who had no roads at all, and who for years had experienced the greatest difficulty in getting 'the produce of their farms to a market. The case of the backblockers was, to his mind, the more urgent, and he could not hold out any hope in the meantime that the residents of Burnside and Green Island would get their bridges. Mr. Myers also urged the deputation to pay more attention to the drainage of the district. He had passed through the locality, and he was sure their time would be better spent in improving the drainage than in seeking the alteration of a bridge.