Scouting celebrates 75 years of service

Forest and Bird, Volume 14, Issue 3, 1 August 1982, Page 15

Scouting celebrates 75 years of service

By Arthur

W. V. Reeve

IT IS APPROPRIATE that the Society should pay tribute to the Boy Scout movement — now known as the Scout movement — on the occasion of its seventieth jubilee year, as many of its leaders and members over the years have made a significant contribution to the work of the Society.

FROM ITS very inception in 1907 Scouting taught boys to recognise and protect trees, not to be wasteful of natural resources, to help other people, and to be kind to animals. High ideals indeed. Scouting really started by chance. Its founder, Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell, hero of the relief of Mafeking in the South African War, had formulated ideas for the training of boys and he put these into practice at an experimental camp on Brownsea Island in Dorset when he selected boys from various social classes, including the public schools. It was so successful that he was asked to write details of his programme of activity and his ideas so that the Boys’ Brigade, Y.M.C.A., and church youth clubs could benefit from his knowledge. Famous book He then set about writing his now-famous book Scouting for Boys, of which millions of copies have been sold throughout the world. It was issued in chapters called ‘‘Yarns’’ and sold in this form. The organisations for which they were written were not enthusiastic about using the _ radical material.

Instead, boys after reading the yarns set up patrols of six or eight and went out and recruited Scoutmasters to help them form Scout troops. Soon troops were formed in several countries and the Scout movement was born. Inevitably, because sisters would not stay away, the Girl Guides or sister movement was started and later, because of the nuisance young brothers were causing, the Wolf Cub Section for boys of 8 to 11 years was started in 1918. Today Scouting has spread to over 150 countries and territories and numbers over 16 million participants. In recent years girls have been able to join the Venturer and Rover Sections in New Zealand, and

in many countries Scouting includes both girls and boys. Fortunately the administrators of the movement have always been progressive, updating the uniforms and keeping the programmes challenging, and flexibility has allowed Scouting to flourish in almost every country. Baden-Powell’s last message, written in Kenya to his Scouters everywhere, read: Let us in training our Scouts, keep the higher aims in the forefront, not let ourselves become absorbed in the steps. Don’t let the technical outweigh the moral. Field efficiency, backwoodsmanship, camping, hiking, good turns, jamboree comradeships are all means, not the end. The end is character — character with a purpose. And that purpose, that the next generation be sane in an insane world, and develop the higher realisation of service, and active service of love and duty to God and neighbour.

The author Arthur W. V. Reeve is a former International Scout Commissioner, and from 1972 to 1975 he was the Society’s public relations officer.

How relevant is this telling message even today — over 40 years later. Scouting is strictly nonpolitical and knows no barriers of colour, class, or creed — a remarkable thing for 1982! Value of trees Baden-Powell said in his early writings that trees should be cut only if they were to be used for making a shelter or for firewood. Wood should never be wasted. He also told Scouts that if they cut down a tree, they should plant one to replace it. And that was some 76 years ago, when conservation and the environment were hardly thought of. As far as I can trace, the words hardly existed. Tracking in the forest was another valuable use in BadenPowell’s training. He said that if you were observant, you could see if anyone had passed through the bush either by broken small branches or bruised and bent foilage. And, of course, if the ground was soft or loose, you could track by the footsteps left behind. Baden-Powell said it was important for boys to know the names of trees and be able to describe their foliage so that they could direct others to follow tracks. If they were lost in the forest, they should know what foliage could be eaten and what could be dangerous. In his original Scouting for Boys, published in 1907, he listed some well-known trees and provided his own sketches of their leaves so that boys could recognise them. They were the oak, elm, poplar, plane, sycamore, and ash, but he listed 18 varieties boys should learn about. He went on to describe the value of plants both as a food and as medicine. He said Scouts should be able to recognise certain crops, such

as wheat, barley, and even grasses. "‘If you are lost in the forest or jungle, you may die of hunger, thirst, or of poisoning if you do not know what you can eat and what you cannot. Berries, nuts, roots, leaves, and even some barks can be good to eat."’ Baden-Powell warned about the dangers of fire in the forest and jungle and commented: "*It takes many years to grow a fine and stately tree, but only a few minutes to cut it down.’’ Another reference is about felling trees. He said to plan always for a tree to fall in open space if possible so that it did not damage other trees. Some foresters over the years cannot have been Scouts! Early conservationists Scouting was one of the earliest movements to be active in environmental matters. In New Zealand prominent men in Scouting organised tree planting, camps in the country where boys were taught about nature and the importance of protecting natural resources. This was long before the Native Bird Society, which later became the Forest and Bird Protection Society, was founded by Captain Sanderson in 1923, when he was so incensed at the way the Government bird sanctuary on Kapiti Island was being managed. Many Scout people over the years have been involved in Forest and Bird work and campaigns, and the resources of the movement have been used from time to time in projects such as organising and running the first Conservation Week, the opening and maintaining of national walkways in various places, and Arbor Day activities over the years. It would be most difficult and perhaps unwise to name the very many Scout people

who over the years have been prominent in the environmental and conservation field. However, by far the greatest contribution has been made by Mr Roy Nelson, of Petone, who after many years of dedicated service became president of the Society and remained in that office for the long period of 19 years, all by voluntary service, as he refused any payments other than travelling expenses. This remarkable man, now well into his eighties, still plays his part in the activities of the Society, and his great knowledge is still sought by many other organisations and even Government Officials. Mr Nelson started his Scouting in the Hutt Valley in 1910, and as there was no troop in that country area, he became a Lone Scout, doing his early training from notes sent from the national headquarters in Christchurch. He became a conservationist through Scouting. His service to the movement is unparalleled. Many are the old boys of his old group, St Augustine’s of Petone, who have served Scouting and Forest and Bird through his early influence. His service has never been recognised by any honours; he has stoutly refused civil or Scout honours. For many years Mr Nelson was Scoutmaster of St Augustine’s Troop, with its 32-member brass band, and this is where I started my Scouting in 1921. Over the years Mr Nelson has _ held almost every voluntary position possible both in administration and training and there are many thousands of boys whose lives he has touched. Quite a number can. say, ‘‘Maire [as he is still known] was my grandfather’s Scoutmaster’’. Old boys still visit him at 15 Aurora Street, Petone, where they went in the

1920s to pass tests and learn camp craft. It was through the friendship of the late Miss Crowther and Maire that she bequeathed the beautiful Brookfield camp site, with its wonderful bush, to the Wellington Scout area and until recently Mr Nelson was camp warden. He planned and developed it to the fine asset it is today. Started: Conservation Week Few citizens realise that Conservation Week came about through Scouting. The Chief Executive Commissioner in 1968 was Mr Selwyn Field, brother of the late Cliff Field, who was Society secfelalyeat tie, vime Oo: the’ fiftieth jubilee. Mr Field attended the Idaho World Jamboree in the U.S.A. and saw the great work being done in the education of young people and others through Government-sponsored conservation trails, one of which every boy at the jamboree covered and wrote about. He came home with copies of the literature and posters and set about getting people interested, including the Government through the Department of Lands and Survey. Conservation Week was born so that practical work could be encouraged and wide publicity given to the need for greater interest in the environment. The brochure . This Precious Land was published and issued by the Scout movement, and each year since, Scouting has played a vital part in publicity planning and in the programme. At: first therec was: sno Government funding, but when the Conservation Week committee was established and an office set up in the Department of Lands and Survey, Government started its $30,000 to $40,000 annual grants to promote the week. (Unfor-

tunately the economies of 1982 have resulted in the cessation of these grants.) So Conservation Week was born by voluntary effort and a tremendous amount of hard work and so it is again. Most of the initiative came from Scouting — and its sister movement, Guiding. The official publication Scout News has a special issue each July publicising the week and includes a_ supplement known as ‘‘Show and Do Ideas’’, which goes to schools and Various interested organisations to motivate them. The movement adopted the World Conservation Badge as part of its training programme and since 1969 Cubs, Scouts, and Sea Scouts have won conservation awards.

Many reserves of native trees in New Zealand were started by the movement in conjunction with the _ local body. Even many colleges which have stands of native bush and trees in their playgrounds for educational purposes have Scout people to thank for the first plantings or the suggestion that native trees and plants should be part of the educational programme. The Correspondence School was influenced by Scouting many years ago to include conservation in its nature study programmes, and Lone Scouts and Guides have been involved in this aspect. Scouting has always been a leader in out-of-school education. Baden-Powell’s ideas

were , so far ahead of their time, even the patrol system. But~ prophets are seldom recognised in their day. In recent times conservation has become fashionable. This was far from being so in the early days of Scouting, or for that matter when the Society was founded in 1923. Today many people are ‘‘jumping on the band-wagon’’ and think that they can get far more

publicity by being protesters on almost any topic, and after all pressure sometimes bends the Government’s will. But the Society and Scouting will still be going on when the band-wagoners have mostly been forgotten. Those who make the greatest noise do not. necessarily achieve the greatest success; nor do their tactics have to measure up to the high reputa-

tions of long-standing and respected organisations. The Society still believes that the day of the ‘‘good turn’’ is not past and that human values surpass all others. In the words of the Scout jamboree song, the Society offers its warmest congratulations to the Scout movement and trusts that ‘‘It will march on for another 50 years’’ E>]