The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1897. THE DEFENCE OF THE COLONY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 258, 6 November 1897, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1897. THE DEFENCE OF THE COLONY.

Jor tho cause that lacks assistance, for the 'wrong that needs resistance, For the faturo In the dlstanoo, And tho good that we oan do.

In our issue of yesterday ■we published a summary of a part of the report on the Defence Forces of the colony, which has been drawn up by the recently appointed commander, Colonel Pole-Penton;. and in our columns to-night will be found a continuation of the same. Several circustances combine to render this report one of more than usual interest. It makes its appearance at a time when a wave of enthusiasm has swept over the Empire from centre, to circumference, awakening in the remotest parts that militant spirit which would seem to be one of the chief factors, if not the chief one, of a strong patriotic and national sentiment. It is the work, too, of a soldier fresh from the Old Country, where that spirit is strongest, and himself strongly imbued with it. This last fact tfives.to the report .a stronger tone of militarism than we have perhaps been accustomed to find in its predecessors; and at another time exception would doubtless have been taken to some of the reforms which the commander suggests, as being unnecessarily elaborate for a peaceful community like ours. But the awakening to which we have just.referred has no doubt enabled us to take a less narrow view of our duties and interests in regard to the defence of the colony and to look at the question in the same spirit as Colonel Pole-Penton does. Of course, it is not to be expected that we can see matters precisely as he does, for we are chiefly guided by purely civilian instincts; but where we are inclined to differ from him we should be prepared to make large concessions to the opinions of an expert. After all* we have brought him here to guide us in these matters, and it would be obviously absurd if we refused to be led by his advice.

So far as we can judge of the report by what we have seen of it the tone in which the Colonel criticises the present organisation and suggests improvements is admirable. While laying his' finger on what many of Us have long known to be weak points, and indicating defects we may have passed over, he does so most courteously. It might have been expected that comirlg from the militai-y establishments1 of the Old Country, ho would have applied a too rigorous standard of comparison when dealing 'with our forces. But although he is far from blind to our shortcomings, he distinguishes clearly that great allowances must be made for the circumstances -under which our permanent troops and our volunteers carry on their work. The faults which he has to find with both these bodies are rather charged to the system than to the men themselves. As he says at the outset of the report, the material of which the forces are composed is excellent, and under proper management could be worked up into high efficiency and reliability; but the system wants reorganisation. As regards the permanent forces, what appears to be chiefly lacking is an adequate staff of qualified officers to train the men. None of our artillery officers have received a thorough trainnig in their work, and though the Commander gives them great credit for having accomplished so much as they have done, he regards it as imperative that three artillery officers should be got out from England at once to put matters on a better footing. This would remedy, the defects of under training in the meantime, and to provide for our fu: ture staff of instructors, he makes an excellent suggestion. It it that five military cadetships should be open for competition in the colony, and that the successful students, after a year's instruction in Wellington, should be sent Home and attached to the Royal Artillery for five years and to the Royal Engineers for \ two years. After such a course of I training they would be able to return to the colony fully qualified to instruct others. To this lack of instructors the Colonel attributes in some degree the deficient discipline of the forces; but at the same time he does not altogether absolve the men from blame on that point. Our soldiers, it appears, do not take the proper pride in themselves that soldiers should do. From the fact that they are glad to get out of their uniform on any pretext one must conclude that they are more anxious to pose as civilians than as soldiers. The reason of this, we believe, lies quite as much with the community as with the men. It is to be feared that we do not display that same regard for the soldierly garb that they do in Europe. The men, too, have a feeling that when they don the regimentals of 'a common Tommy Atkins' they descend in the social scale. It is particularly unfortunate that any such false sentiment shoxild prevail. 'Another bar to a high standard of discipline here appears to be marriage, and the Colonel suggests that .more stringent regulations should be made as to the number of men who are allowed to wed. We fear, however, that such reo-ulations would rather tend to make the service unpopular with both sexes, and we would suggest that the remedy should not be. the first to be tried. Lastly, the commander does not approve of the men being called to do police duty at certain times, and on this point we are disposed to agree with him.

The Commander's remarks with regard to the volunteers more directly affect the public. The Colonel evidently wishes to see more life infused into the movement. He thinks that the Government, the men themselves, and their employers could all do something more than is now being done in & matter of such importance as the

efficient training of a body of citizen soldiers. He lays: especial stress on the necessity for more field drill, and suggests that employers should grant facilities to their employees in that direction, and ' that the Government should give an extra capitation for drills .beyond the number required by the regulations. In this division of our defence forces the need of efficient instructors is urgent, and he recommends getting three officers from the Old Country. In addition, he is strongly in favour of the establishment of a school of military instruction in Wellington, and of a revisal of the regulations guiding the appointments in the volunteer forces with the object of introducing more direct supervision on the part of the military authorities. . A suggestion which has a good deal to recommend it is that the expense of training the cadet corps should be borne by the Education and not the Military Department.

The space at our disposal does not permit us to refer exhaustively to the many suggestions the Commander offers -in hi.; ■ report ; but any : one perusing-the precis of the document published in' our columns will recognise the very thorough character of the reforms which the Colonel advises. These reforms, of course, are not^ to be brought about without an addition to the present expenditure in our defence establishment, which now amounts to about £87,000 a year; and if it seemed to Us that they were unwarranted by the circumstances of the case we would be the first to oppose them. But we must candidly admit that there is nothing in the report that bears the. appearance of having been dictated by any other than a spirit of true economy combined with a desire for efficiency. Colonel Pole-Penton is moderate. He does not contemplate any big military system for this little colony, but he says what we do have let it be good. And to this sentiment we think no one can take exception.