0:00 I'm sorry I'm going to have to sit down
0:02 but my knees aging I have to look but
0:06 faster than me I think and they don't
0:07 like standing the Pathfinder started in
0:10 North New Zealand in 1956 I'm not quite
0:16 sure when they started here but Bronte
0:22 Sinclair was the youth leader at that
0:23 time he came up to one grade to start
0:26 our care to stop pathfinders we had a
0:29 meeting out in the hall and at nine
0:31 o'clock we broke off our meeting and
0:33 went out to watch the first satellite go
0:35 away but does anybody remember what year
0:36 that was
0:38 that's good good many years ago but that
0:41 was the year but the Pathfinder started
0:43 live Larson some of you people will know
0:46 the names that I've mentioned that's
0:48 been in power fine as others may not but
0:51 did Larson was our first Pathfinder
0:53 director and I was put in this his
0:55 assistants the children was when they
1:00 came we're learning friends companion
1:03 and guide work and we were supposed to
1:06 be master guides because we were so new
1:09 we had to study
1:10 I think harder than the children they
1:12 seemed to do it easier than us to keep
1:14 one jump ahead of them so we knew just
1:16 what to give them each week for the
1:17 meetings the meetings used to meet every
1:22 Sunday morning in the church hall was
1:25 the old hall in the little one we had a
1:31 parade and inspection they didn't have
1:33 uniforms to start off with but over the
1:35 year they they got the uniforms they
1:37 would have to be inspected there was a
1:39 little bit of a dispute some of the
1:40 girls like to wear their blouse is out
1:42 of they'd like to wear them in but the
1:44 rule said blouse is in so we had our own
1:48 rule they had their blouses tucked in
1:49 for inspection parade and the devotional
1:52 service then when we broke to do our
1:54 other class work make it have their
1:56 shirts in or out whichever they liked
1:58 and that worked very well we had no
2:00 problem getting the girls to tuck their
2:02 shirts in for for the and I found all
2:06 the time working with children sometimes
2:08 you have to make compromises to keep the
2:10 peace
2:11 some of the children would start getting
2:13 into mischief and you had to pounce on
2:15 them fairly quickly otherwise it got out
2:17 of control
2:19 I think this three three boys here that
2:22 used to be part finest shame Trevor and
2:26 David other any others here that used to
2:29 be can't see who you are oh I couldn't
2:34 can't see your property my eyes are not
2:35 very good yeah yeah you were you were
2:39 the leader of part of the time yeah
2:42 there was much later that was repel time
2:44 I left we had games crafts not time and
2:51 believe me we used to get into some
2:53 really good nights the patient loners
2:56 they put these that are on my sash they
2:59 have and I have a paper here that lists
3:04 a lot of the vocational honors but the
3:06 children do it shows all the badges
3:10 [Applause]
3:12 shows the badges and then gives you a
3:15 outline of the work that you do I also
3:19 have one here on cooking and fire built
3:22 fire building in camp cooking one of the
3:24 competition's the children had to do was
3:26 light a fire with one match that was
3:29 alright on a calm day but on a windy day
3:31 that could be very very difficult and
3:33 some children were much better at doing
3:35 that than others so that when we went
3:37 down each year to our meeting down in
3:40 Haskell Park when we all competed
3:42 against the different different clubs we
3:46 always picked out those who could do the
3:48 thing we got a list ahead of the work
3:50 time and some that were good on the work
3:53 practiced up and they loved this camp
3:55 cooking making pancakes over the fire
3:58 sometimes they got burnt but they seemed
4:00 to enjoy them at home if they got burnt
4:02 they wouldn't eat them but when they
4:03 burnt them themselves they seemed to
4:05 think that was all right we used to have
4:08 a monthly mean monthly outing week time
4:11 para hockey I was usually fairly well
4:13 behind but never mind we got there I
4:16 remember one time we went over to where
4:18 medic
4:19 Kohi museum I remember Murph Elvin was
4:21 one of our dads that helped with the
4:23 transport and I found all during my
4:26 pathfinder years the parents were very
4:28 good in supplies support and transport
4:31 for the various outings yeah we that was
4:39 the early meeting at Haskell Park and
4:41 remember one year we were down there and
4:43 they were doing the drill
4:46 Diane Lynch was a leader on one end of
4:49 the line and Greenfield Michael
4:55 Greenfield was the other end of the line
4:57 so when they turned I had a senior when
4:59 they Chen pasture passing him was giving
5:02 the orders and my team was in a
5:05 single-file marching across the grounds
5:08 and somebody districted passed the pasta
5:11 and the team just marched straight off
5:13 the ground everybody was doing and only
5:15 wondering what was happened but he
5:17 announced afterwards that that was the
5:19 right thing to do because no other order
5:20 had been given so she just kept marching
5:22 straight ahead mostly of these there was
5:27 a few upsets like that now I just made
5:30 some three camps that we had one was
5:33 down a tree a tire hit an old house down
5:35 there at this time ray Blackburn was the
5:38 leader I was the assistant cook and he
5:43 took the children up timed up mountain
5:45 and I my heart was in my mouth all day
5:47 wondering where the hell they were
5:48 getting on but they all arrived back
5:50 very grubby do it is scratched and you
5:52 know how what happens when a group of
5:54 boys go out like that it was their very
5:57 good Kim another camp we had was out at
6:01 Greenfield set toto and that was an old
6:05 home old homestead out there mrs. ring
6:08 Rose was with me at that stage and
6:10 Griffin Yvonne Ellis my helpers I got
6:14 out there early
6:15 the house had hay stored in us but that
6:19 was still quite clean but I left all the
6:22 hay there for them to play with and yeah
6:26 I lit the fire with a big ol of wood
6:30 stove
6:31 and I know he got smoked out of the
6:33 house went outside to have a look to see
6:36 if smoke was coming out the chimney and
6:38 what came out the chimney was a possible
6:40 he had built a home in than there in the
6:43 chimney so Grif had to climb up on the
6:46 roof and dispossessed the possum of his
6:49 home after that we had a good firing had
6:51 a good camp at that meeting while grace
6:54 was being said at breakfast I kept my
6:56 eyes open and I saw somebody sprinkle
6:59 salt on somebody else's porridge so I
7:02 just walked over and picked up the two
7:03 plates and changed them over I was
7:06 reminded about that about 20 years later
7:09 the person concerned some might know who
7:12 it is who it was he was a bit of a
7:14 scoundrel but he was a lovely boy it
7:24 wasn't Dave the one neither of the two
7:27 here present Ron we get to I said are
7:35 the other other camp-meeting was out at
7:37 Lewis ring roses weekend he put up a big
7:42 tent out there and put hay bales in for
7:46 us to sit on wrong on the cloud was the
7:48 Pathfinder director then and he went out
7:51 in the bush and came back we went for a
7:54 bush war where he came back he came back
7:55 for the Kiwi and the Kiwi II and got all
7:59 the children in the tent and they all
8:01 had a look at the Kiwis and the egg and
8:03 then I had to keep all the children in
8:06 the tent while a Kiwi was returned to
8:08 its natural habitat and during the camp
8:12 out there in the tents the other two in
8:14 houses this was intense and little
8:16 voices would say mrs. coddling there's
8:19 something making a noise outside my tent
8:21 it was Lewis's cows that were across the
8:24 creek and you could hear them chewing
8:25 grass and moving and moving around and
8:28 then somebody else would say what's that
8:30 noise it'll be a Kiwis calling or a
8:32 fourth or calling and it was quite
8:34 interesting that the children Peter
8:36 I've never heard that sort of thing but
8:38 surprising how quickly they adapted the
8:42 other thing or we used to have a
8:44 Pathfinder meeting at the church the
8:47 Pathfinder Udall parade in and be
8:49 presented with their awards for the year
8:53 I still have my little book from my
8:55 master guide directions and I'll tell
8:59 you about three three big camps we went
9:02 to one in World's End at 1971 that was
9:07 the two booklets from there and that's
9:10 the little banner we got mrs. ring Rose
9:13 was there I took a group of children
9:18 down on the train
9:19 we were talking by car I think sue was
9:23 with us on the trip we took the train
9:28 down to Wellington and Sue McLeod
9:31 she wasn't typically up in CS quarters
9:34 from the train to the boat because she
9:37 knew Wellington and all the side tracks
9:38 and kept through and over on the boat we
9:41 got to the other end and the buses were
9:43 2 meters for the our bus didn't turn up
9:45 because he had driven over the road
9:48 which was newly formed and he didn't
9:50 like taking his bus over that road again
9:52 I don't blame him because in the bus you
9:54 look out like that and you look for
9:55 straight away down to the bottom of the
9:57 cliff and so we had to wait for that but
10:01 when we got to the camp it was a lovely
10:02 clean round had him in the trailer with
10:08 in his sleeping bag and took him down
10:09 and dumped him in the creek I don't
10:11 remember what he did he never worried
10:13 never fought or anything he just
10:14 accepted he definitely played play
10:16 pranks on the others and they got one
10:18 back on him passing him I don't know
10:21 helped him many of you know him he's a
10:22 lot really lovely man
10:31 the other camp I went through was at
10:32 yera Mundi in Australia I didn't take
10:36 any other children to this camp I went
10:39 as an assistant to a composite group
10:42 children that didn't have Fonda camps to
10:45 go to and the worst thing when we got
10:47 there and Ken pitched our camps was no
10:51 fires to be lit at all
10:53 all our food have to be eaten cold it
10:55 was so hot during our camp we had a
10:59 violent storm and a big each camp was in
11:04 a different block and a space between
11:06 and a tree fell and it fell in that
11:09 space between the tents and the flood I
11:14 could I was in my tent I could see the
11:16 water trickling down past it and so
11:18 forth so we will confined to our tents
11:21 for a few hours while the rain passed
11:22 over but everybody was joyful after that
11:26 because they could like fires and that
11:28 was a very happy time
11:30 [Music]
11:34 do any of you remember Carter at Rennes
11:36 bosses book no devil streets you know
11:40 pastor and ahsha was at that camp in the
11:42 group and we had him to our camp for a
11:45 meal which was very interesting he told
11:48 some very interesting stories and to
11:51 orig where's the big camp and this is
11:56 the banner we got from two orig idea was
12:03 at that one I think mrs. cousin Maya was
12:07 the director at that time if I remember
12:09 right I may not have it all these
12:10 details exactly right because after all
12:14 these years it's very hard to remember
12:15 at all we had some camps of Nazareth
12:23 Jerusalem I can't read my own writing
12:25 Bethenny came to Capernaum and Jericho
12:29 and the hill between the kitchen and the
12:32 present big building there was gold
12:35 offer and they had the three crosses up
12:37 on that which was very women so that was
12:42 there
12:42 interesting I've also got these that's
12:47 the Badgers he's supposed to wear some
12:49 of these on your on your fish my fish I
12:53 also have a little booklet here that we
12:58 were given and each day there were some
13:02 of the people dressed as disciples you
13:04 have to go around and ask them and they
13:06 would put a stamp on your book to get
13:08 the stamp and we have to keep a four-day
13:11 diary which I had the video and it was
13:15 one of the most interesting camps there
13:17 were so many children there the it's got
13:25 a map here the layout of the camp and
13:31 they had various activities on that you
13:35 could go to and I remember when they had
13:39 the fighting fighting up on the hill
13:41 throwing bags of flour or something of
13:43 each other they had there was a lake
13:46 near the camp it was not on the
13:47 campground but the farmer allowed the
13:49 use of it and they had boats out on the
13:52 lake and they had I think they had a few
13:54 water fights down there too but working
13:56 with pathfinders and the group of
13:58 children I found very interesting it
14:03 wasn't only our church children a lot of
14:05 them brought their friends with them who
14:08 were very felt very out of place I think
14:10 when they would came first that it was a
14:13 project to see how they over the weeks
14:15 they all joined in each year there
14:19 seemed to be one boy who was a little
14:21 bit of a I don't know what you'd call
14:22 him a mischief or a high-spirited or
14:25 something and you sort of have to keep
14:27 your eye on that particular one most of
14:30 the time and if any little problems that
14:33 came up in the but otherwise its spread
14:35 and the whole thing got out of hand but
14:38 I found that by talking to the children
14:41 compromising making rules and sticking
14:44 to them if I found it very interesting
14:46 and even today last year at the camp big
14:50 camp there were several young people's
14:52 came up to me young married
14:54 mainly you don't know me mrs. Cortland
14:57 no don't know you I was in Pathfinder
14:59 sir I was jet Pathfinder came for real
15:01 something like that and they still
15:03 remember the work that we used to do in
15:05 the past I think that's about all I can
15:08 tell you about it I after the big camp -
15:13 we rejoice they seem to drift out of
15:15 pathfinders it got a little bit too much
15:18 for me hope you enjoyed been able to
15:23 tell you if anybody got any questions I
15:26 did I should have mentioned I had 28
15:29 children when I went down to the camp at
15:32 South Island on the train that was a
15:36 great experience
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