INGLEWOOD.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 June 1920, Page 9

INGLEWOOD.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) On how iiMuy kglewood readers of the Daily News of June Sth. who perused the rep»rt of the Madden Rang case heard at the Stratford Juvenile Court, did any Inkling dawn of the debt that Inglewood and its district owe to thoso enhuslasts in their midst who started and have maintained the Bov Scout movement here. ft Is invidious and often unwise to single out individuals bv name, but in this instance at any rate it should be permissible to mention Messrs Humphrey, Wagstaff, Arthur, and Harris, as some who, by their example to, and encouragement of the Boy Scouts here, have helped to bring the local troop to the high state of efficiency It now possesses, and to them and all others who have helped In any way, even if only by sympathetic encouragement,- a debt of gratitude, deeper, probably, than they realise is owed alike by parents and children, how far so ever the Influence of the movement extends. There is a feeling ingrained In most neople, although, may be, they aro hardly conscious of it, that a spice of jievilry is a necessary ingredient to the making of n real yj>uth, boy, or girl, and that feeling, that knowledge was surely a guiding Influence with Sir Robert Baden Powell when he started the great Boy Scout movement, and wrote the first guide book of the craft. Any one who has read his Boy Scout book will remember how strongly he wrote against the everlasting "Don't's" of weak or careless grown up guides of young folk, how lie minted out the uselessnoss of forbidding activity in a wrong direction unless at the same time a substitute Do was found, a guide to activity In a right direction. Misdirected energy, he claimed, was the root of most juvenile wrong doing, and it is just there that the scout movement comes In. The young are supplied! by their elders, who themselves must be persons worthy of respect, with objeets useful and interesting, objects to which to devote their spare' time, on which to expend their superfluous energy. They are led, perhaps unknowingly, certainly not ostentatiously, into right ways, encouraged to be manly, good mannered, clean living, and unselfish. Not driven by fear of punishment, but led by example and helped to choose tho right for its own sake. Taught to direct their play into useful channels and ever and always to help any to whom they can give a helping hand without thought of other reward than the pleasure that such actions will always yield the doer. It Is pleasant to notice that in tho Stratford case, the Magistrate. Mr. Bailev, was reluctant to apply the old time vindictive corpora! corrective. He, at. any rate, In that court possessed insight into human nature, and If asked would probably admit that he believed it easier to flog the devil into a boy than to thrash that old scapegoat out. Finally, it _is an odds-on wager that If the Scout movement had had as strong a hold and such enthusiastic leaders at Stratford as it has at Inglewood, that case would never have been.

Mr. It. Branch, who is well-known in the Inglewood district, has accepted an appointment in the Nelson Provincial District, and in consequence lias sold his Inglewood property and severed his connection with Mr. N. King's local staff, on which he has latterly filled the position of general salesman. During his sojourn in Taranaki he has been employed a 9 overseer by the Inglewood Municipal Council, and in that cnpncHy had a good deal to do with the extension of the borough water supply and sewerage schemes, with much satisfaction to the Council and ratepayers. He left that position to lake up the duties of engineer to the Taranaki County Council, later taking tho situation on Mr. King's staff that he has now relinquished. Since he has heen in Taranaki Mr. Branck has had a wide experience of this' part, of the North Island of the Dominion, and is enthusiastic in his praise, of the country and the people, afid declares that, wherever it may be his lot to go. ho shall always remember, with warm feelings of goodwill the years of bis life that have been spent here. That he takes with him the good wishes of a large circle of friends In many and various walks of life is quite certain, and the knowledge that that is so will surely brace him to face the future with confidence whatever Sate may have In store for him.