50 Years of Scouting with Roslyn
The Very Early Years
In the fourth standard at the Kaikorai School in 1908 was a lad named Harry Stephens. His teacher, Mr. Pat Murphy, and others in the city who had heard from the Old Country newspapers of the new movement called Scouts, were partly responsible for a growing interest among all the boys of school age. By September of that year it had become necessary to convene a public meeting from which the first definitive troops were formed.
Harry Stephens, however, along with others, had been experimenting as a Scout patrol—the Beaver patrol—even before that time, and the initial momentum with which the Movement in Dunedin began, can be attributed to the tremendous appeal which Baden-Powell's ideas had, and still have, for the natural boy. It would certainly appear that there was a spontaneous outburst of enthusiasm which was characteristic of the Scout beginnings elsewhere also. The first meeting to discuss the official start of Boy Scouts in Dunedin was held in McCarthy's Buildings in Stuart Street in September of 1908.
Rules were drawn up, based on B.P.'s various books, and arrangements set in train to find suitable halls. At this meeting Roslyn was represented by the Grand Old Man of Dunedin Scouting, D'Arcy E. Dredge, who was to become the first G.S.M. of Roslyn, and by his two later fellow Scoutmasters, Hudson Stephens and Arthur South. Two boys who had no right to be there, Egbert Dredge and Harry Stephens, managed to find their way in also. As referred to elsewhere in this Brochure, meeting places were found to accommodate two troops and, with a great flourish "the Roslyn and Maori Hill Battalion of Boy Scouts" got away to a smart beginning.
The scarf colours selected were those of the Kaikorai School. The original patrols were the Wolves, Foxes, Hounds, Owls, Lions and Beavers, but these were later replaced by the more familiar bird patrol names. Buffaloes and Stags, however, are two of the older patrol names which are still a feature of the First Dunedin, the Buffaloes in particular having occupied their local "wallow" for nigh on thirty years.
At the beginning, while the Maori Hill Troop existed as a separate section of the "Battalion" (the military origins were particularly evident in the earlier period), a big item in training was Morse signalling. To do this effectively, an enthusiastic tutor from the P. & T. Department obtained a good length of fine wire line, and this was regularly laid down from the Roslyn H.Q. to the Maori Hill H.Q. every Friday night. Ten minutes before close down two members of each troop would proceed to roll the wire on to reels. They usually met at Bishopscourt and then took the respective reels back to their meeting places for the next Friday night. Since this became rather tedious it soon became a "privilege" for the Tenderfoots to be allowed to roll the wire.
For practical Scouting the Headquarters was Roy's Gully. This is the gully which runs from the end of Balmacewen Road across towards what is now the Ross Creek Reservoir and the Leith Valley. In those days it was still thick manuka and an ideal spot for Scouting practices. How Saturday was looked forward to! It was customary to go in for extensive and elaborate hut building in the "forward" areas at one time there were five semi-permanent installations, all carefully camouflaged and constantly guarded lest the local vandals, who delighted in nothing better than the destruction of a Scout "Hide", should locate them. Elaborate precautions were also taken to avoid ambush from other Scout troops. In order to reach a headquarters site, there would be careful reconnaissance of the gully ahead, semaphore and hand signals to ensure stealthy approach, and lookouts and sentries posted on arrival, while the patrol projects of huts, bridges or dams went ahead.
In 1912 an N.C.O.'s clubroom was provided by taking over at a rental of 1/- per week a two-roomed house in Wairoa Street. The boys relined and redecorated the rooms, added some furnishings, a Morse key and a small library. The Roslyn Scouts in the early days always excelled at tracking, and much information about this was gained from swotting such books as E. S. Ellis' Deerfoot the Indian and the various Chums annuals. A small range provided the heating in the clubroom and also facilities for cooking potatoes and cocoa. Lighting was from a kerosene lamp or candles. This clubroom was used at any time by the Scout N.C.O.'s, it was kept spotlessly clean, and never suffered from the attention of the vandals, who sometimes did contrive to wreck the huts in the gully.
The Woodcraft Circle was another early interest peculiar to Roslyn, though practised in other parts of the Scouting world. The Circle met periodically for a week-end camp in the bush, the highlight being the initiation of any new member. First Class Scouts only were eligible. Sugarbag Indian uniforms were made, and the S.M. acted as chief medicine man, complete with horns. After due ritual the initiate had carved on his forehead the special sign of the Woodcraft Circle. The "carving". was done with the back of a freshly whetted knife dipped into warm water. The water running off the knife gave the sensation that blood was streaming down the face and to get through without sign of fear was a considerable feat. The successful initiate was then given his "woodcraft" name, a name to be symbolic of his character and way of life, but he was not supposed to know why it was selected!
Vague memories of such a ceremony linger in the honorary "woodcraft" names adopted in much more perfunctory manner by modern Scouters.