COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 270, 12 November 1909, Page 4

COMPULSORY MILITARY TRAINING.

At last we are to have a complete and comprehensive system of military training applied all the able-bodied men in the Dominion; and we join heartily in the congratulations which the President of the National Defence league has already forwarded to the Premier. As our readers will havo observed, the scheme provides for the physical and disciplinary training of our young men from an early age till they attain their majority. All boys and youths between 12 and 18 years must be attached to cadet corps, those under 12 being confined to regular physical exercises; and all young men from IS to 21 years are to undergo compulsory military training for two years. Portions of week days and holidays will bo devoted to this purpose, as well as certain hours in the evenings; and 14 days must be spent each year in training camps. It is possible that these provisions may appear to some of our readers rather too exacting for the comfort and convenience of tho populaUuion generally. Comparing it with ilr. Deakin's Federal scheme, we may observe that in Australia from 12 to 14 the boys must be drilled as cadets; from 14 to IS they must join regular naval or military corps, and must give 16 whole days to training each year; from IS to 20 they are members of the adult defence foTces, and 'must take part in the regular drills and camps; from 20 to 20 they anust belong to the militia or tc rifle clubs, or they must be registered in the Reserve, aud must make one yearly muster parade. On the whole, it seems that the NewZealand scheme is less drastic than the Australian; and in any case the proposals are srtill subject to modification. The great point is that when this systeni is adojited it will not only provide am effective nucleus for a national army in our midst, but it will confer upon the whole community inestimable advantages by impressing upon the rising generation in a practical way the supreme virtues of physical fitness, the advantages ot discipline, and the necessity for selidenial and obedience to authority. la these materialistic days the primary virtue of patriotism, and the need for submission to the requirements of public duty, sadly need enforcing, and a citizen army is, in our opinion, a splendid nursery for a strong and virile national life. Whatever be the fighting value of our local defence Torce, or of ihc expeditionary forces that the scheme proposes to include as our contribution to the Empire's defence, we beiieve that compulsory military training on the lines indicated will be fully justified by its effects in raising the level of the nation's physique and morale, and toy strengthening and purifying the sources of our national life.