TERRITORIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 310, 30 December 1915, Page 8

TERRITORIAL NOTES.

(By RIFLEMAN.) RIFLE MEETINGS. January 1 ami 3-Auckland Rifle Association's Annual Prize Firing at Penrose. January 4 and s—District Rifle Association's Prize Meeting at Penrose. When the Third and Fourth Battalions of the Rifln Brigade were 6natching the last few minutes of sleep at Rangiotu prior to dispersal ou final leave, which includes the Christmas and New Year holidays, the battalion bands scattered the slumbers of their comrades by lustily ■playing through the lines, "Christians, Awake! 'Salute the Happy Morn." •TD PULL THE STRING, SIR." There i≤ a story from Rangiotu, where the Third, and Fourth Battalions of the Hide Brigu-'e have teen hardening up in their final training. They were doing the real thing in patrol work and sentry duties. A sergeant in charge of a picket had pouted his sentry group, and had given an intelligent sentry all the information that is deemed advisable in such eircumatanees. He had told him where the enemy was believed to be, the position of the sentry on his right and on his left, the exact portion of the ground he w-as to watch, where the rest of the picket'lay, and where the neighbouring pickets were. He gave him explicit instructions what to do if anyone approached the picket, and warned him to give hie challenge dearly but not so loudly as to warn any lurking enemy of the location of the outpost. Further, he explained that as it was reasonably certain the Germans had not yet landed in New Zealand, there was no occasion for the sentry to rouse his comrades unnecessarily if a wandering horse or a courting rabbit should sigh during the night. 'And," said the ingenious sergeant in conclusion, "if there is anything that puzzles you, I'll be beside that clump of goree there, and you must rouse mc at once. So as not to waken the boys on a false alarm, just pull this string which I'll tie round my wrist, and I'll join you in a jiffy."

That was all right, and the sergeant laid out his string and curled himself up in his blanket beside the gorse bush. He was wide awake when during the night a party of officers came along on "Grand Roumla" to inspect the pickets. He hoard his man halt the "Grand Rounds'' and "Advance One." He heard ti'.e sentry being put through hU catechism as to where the enemy were and the other sentries, and the picket, and the eergeant in charge. The sentry answered like a book, and the sergeant hugged himself with satisfaction. The sentry knt-w everything he was supposed to know, until ho wae asked what he would <io if anyone came on in defiance of the challenge. Quick as thought the bright sentry answered with intelligence vibrating in hie voice, "I'd pull the string, sir." Explanations followed —as the sergeant sat there tingling -with disgust in the grateful darkness—but the O.C. was a good eort, and when later in the night he came along and squatted beside hie embarrased sergeant, he congratulated him upon hie cute idea and seemed not unhappy about the incident. THE SOLDIERLY SPIRIT. At this time of year there is, naturally enough, a cessation «of active training work aaiong our Territorials. The actual holiday period is generously left free in makinp up tile training programme for the yt>ar. If the right spirit has not already been aroused among ou-r mcn — the desire to do steady work with the one intelligent aim in view, to become physically fit nnrl capable of doing effective work in what is war to the knife—then it never will be aroused, and such object* of clay must take the consequences. They must be trampled upon to make way for bettor men. If there is anything at all in military training, it must be regarded as a system of living, a sensible programme which, when followed faithfully, makes for physical and moral courage. Courage and brains arc all that matter just now. We can leave the brains in the meantime. Brains can't be any manner of use unless you have a sound body to carry them about in. But courage is a quality that i≤ largely Ln our own keeping. Physical courage is a matter of discipline and selfcontrol. It is encouraged by physical fitness. Weakness of body caused by over-indulgenre in rubbishy food, potent liquors and the nerve-destroying cigarette will let a man down badly at a critical moment and make a coward of him. Moral courage, which is a very much higher attribute than mere indifference to physical pain, depends to a very large extent upon physical fitness. It is youx eick-at-the-stomach kind of creature who funks saying the right thing and then squeals hie excuses. All this Bounds very high falutin, no I doubt, but isn't it just common sense J after all? If military training is just a matter of the regulation number of parades, it is so much waste time. The idea at the back of it all must be put into daily practice. And what is the idea at the back of it all —the formation of character, the ideal of willing selfeacrifice for the welfare of the State and for the good of one's fellow citizens. A.s the adniiraile John Solano cays: 'The work of making a good soldier today is based on the making of a good man, and results in the making of a good citizen. To relax the habits of soldierly eelf-discipline in the ordinary relations of life is to sink to the level of the babbling patriots who join the National Reserve or a. rifle club and then dodge drill after the first night or two. When you realise how many of tie are doing little more than talk, how we repeat the unfounded and ill-natured stories about men who are holding down difficult positions, you are beginning to understand how many of us are not the stuff that made the British Empire what it ie. and how badly -we need a jolly good hiding before we will be fit to win a war. And 60, brother, is not the best New Year wish for proper men at the present time the wish that we may be worthy of the kSiaki which is folded away for a brief epell during the holidays? THE SPIRIT OF THE P. AND T. The last territorial note of the year may very fittingly be devoted to one of the most efficient units of our Auckland , field force. A Saturday or two ago the I Post and Telegraph Corps held a field J day in a suitable paddock on Camp Dell's i Point. The work that was accomplished 1 was the real thing in military proficiency I and the spirit shown by the men was, something to make a man feel good all j over. Captain V Dunne makes a hobby ' of his company, and he is repaid a hun- > dred-fold in the devotion of his lads. They swear by their skipper. " We've ! got the best man in Auckland," they will tell you. "There is no funny business about hir.; he gets right into it.' . The programme covered on that Satur-

day afternoon kept the whole company busy in practical demonstration of the thoroughly effective nature of their training. Right round the field signalling groups wig-wagged semaphore messages in a complete circuit, while other groups J communicated by helio from the Point to ! a prominent bluff on the waterfront. .Meanwhile yet another party rigged up a complete wireless installation, and sent J and received messages. This was the I real thing; not simply play. The P. and T. Corps is an engineer unit, and has adapted its professional knowledge of Morse, and its acquired knowledge of semaphore, to the practical requirements of war. But the O.C. is too much of a man's man to make his fellows stale on mere ! work and technical proficiency. He entertained them at tea on his own lawn, and the atmosphere of this pleasant interlude in the proceedings suggested that he regarded it as a pleasure and a privilege to do so. If you have ever read Kipling's " Army of a Dream " you will understand the relation between j O.C. and company that this note is in- ; tended to suggest. The aforementioned story, by the way, is in " Traffics and Discoveries." , Now, there was a- wrestling mat on ; the skipper's lawn, and as the soldiers I lay around there was some curiosity as jto the why and wherefore of it. They I were not kept long in waiting. Mr. Tenj nant Colledgc, of the Leys Institute GymI nasium, and Mr. J. Fulton, amateur ! champion wrestler of New Zealand, were ' guests at the field day. Captain Dunne and Mr. Colledge etripped off and gave jas pretty an exhibition of jiu jitsu wrest- : liner as you could wish to see. All the i holds were explained and demonstrated, ' and at the conclusion the O.C. said , naively. " That's the sort of thing you lads might like to take on up in the building. We have the mat there." It should be explained that the P. and T. ; menJiave admirable training quarters in I the Post Office building, with all the I appurtenances for physical training, wrestling, boxing, jiu jitsu, and so on. !as well as technical equipment for milii tary training.

The jiu jitsu demonstration over, Captain Dunne and Mr. Fulton gave a slashing exhibition of catch-as-catch-can wrestling. The latter is himself an examateur champion, and the bout was a rattling good one. The P. and T. men are indeed fortunate to have their training controlled on the principle of example being better than precept.

But the wrestling mat did not com- ; prise all the athletic hints of the after- : noon. Mr. T. W. Brown was also a guest, and Mr. Tom Brown, as many i know, is an cx-Master-at-Arms of the J Indian Army, and holds medals for mili- ! tary prowess that go only to the cracks >in many strenuous assaults-at-anns. The officers of the Auckland section of the main body of our Expeditionary ■ appreciated his skilled instruction in I sword fighting, and at various military i demonstrations on the Domain squads of j trained men have revealed his master touch as a teacher of bayonet fighting. A squad of the P. and T. men, includ- ! ing the O.C. and both of hie subaltenw. i went through a realistic and gruelling , demonstration of practical bayonet fight- , ing. Mr. Brown's instruction is designed to make the bayonet a weapon with j which to kill an enemy. and the various practices include skilful falls and tripe calculated to make it a certainty that the enemy will meet a soldier's death, while the pupil will live to kill many more. This instruction has been a feature of the work undertaken by the P. and T. Company in its training course: and here, asain, the evpertness acquired ;by some sets the example for the whole company. They have great doings up on that flat roof of the Post Office building, and the Department has the satisfaction of knowing that these Civil servants accomplish their professional duties the more effectively because they have undertaken , their military duties with so much zeal j and proficiency.