OUR VOLUNTEERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 66, 18 March 1907, Page 2

OUR VOLUNTEERS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —It was with great pleasure I read "Cherub's" plea for the volunteers. It has been a great vexation to mc to see the contempt shown volunteers, and is, to my mind, quite out of keeping with., the extreme loyalty professed here. In England, where prejudice and class distinction abound, volunteers; are not so little thought of. As "Cherub" points out, the volunteer freely gives up much, and by going to camp many of them lose money. When the No. 1 G-A. were at Christchurch, one of the young men told mc he, wrtb several more, tried, almost in vain, to get a dinner on Christmas Day. Finally they went to an hotel, where they were put off, for quite an hour and a half, by saying the dining-room was full. At last they went into the room, and found it empty! In another case the men were told their room was preferred to their company. Talking to a young lady a few days ago, when the subject of volunteers came up, she said: "If a girl is seen talking , to a young fellow in uniform her character suffers. A young man I know well was told by another young man he had lost his character by being a volunteer. Is it not better to see a young fellow take up volunteering tnan" to take up the. occupation of bar-loung-r ing and gambling, as so very many of the young men of to-day are doing?;—l am, &t, " MATER.