Ken, thank you for your prompt response. Indeed, I have been a seeker of perl wisdom for a number of decades while producing some 50k lines of perl code, but this is my first post in a while.
The referred question leads in the direction that this may not be so easily solved using the Scrolled method. Packing and scrolling are somewhat counter direction mechanisms...
Manually handling the scrollbars is probably what I need to do, but I can imagine there being issues with slightly different sized Panes depending on whether or not the scrollbars are needed etc. Or maybe the packer handles a not needed scrollbar for me? Time will tell.

I wouldn't be surprised if some monk has already encapsulated this somewhere.

My general problem is to pack as much information as possible in as little a GUI as possible, keeping as much as possible visible until I run into the limits of the screen and only then showing the scrollbars.

Any further hints or pointers greatly appreciated.
Again, thanks.