TERRITORIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 53, 2 March 1916, Page 8

TERRITORIAL NOTES.

(By RIFLEMAN.) • DATES OF TRAINING CAMPS. February 25 to March 4—3rd (Auckland) Regiment, at Motutapu; No. 1 Field Ambulance, at Awapunl. March 1 to 9.—lsth (North Auckalnd) Regiment, at Taumarere. March 10 to 18.—Coast Defence Infantry, at Waiwera. April 1 to B.—Sth (Hauraki) Regiment, at Paeroa. April 3 to 11—E Squadron, 4th (Waikato) M.R.. at Opotiki. April 7 to 15.—Field Engineers and Divisional Signal Company, at Ngaruawauia. April Bto 15.—16 th (Waikato) Regiment, at Cambridge. April 28 to May 6.—No. 5 Field Ambulance (less B Section), and 4th (Waikato) M.R. (less E Equadron), at Ngaruawahla. May 1 to o.—3rd (Auckland) M.R. and Mounted Signal Troop, at Avondale. May 13 to 25.—Casual Camp, at Auckland.

•-• II A large number of lads were registered at Devonport on Thursday and Saturday ~ last for service with the senior cadets. - n Some of the "recruits" arc very eager, and there is promise of their work bene- . fiting both the company and themselves a . jrreat deal. P c So.rgeant-Major J. Wall, officer com- g manding the 51st (Devonport) Company a of Senior Cadets, is at present in camp. B Sergeant-Major Williams has been over 0 at Devonport to take charge during Ser- t geant-Major Wall's absence. p ~ P Eugene Sandow, who posed as the a strongest man in the world, has, accord- B ing to: the statement of Mrs M. A. Harper fj (head of the Harper Institute of London) c to an American newspaper, been executed f in the Tower of London as a spy. ''There s

can be no doubt that Sandow was shot," said Mrs Harper. "I know all the leading physical culturists of London, many of them close friends of the athlete, and despite the silence of the authorities and the censorship, we have obtained indisputable evidence of the execution last June." Replying to questions in the House of Parliament on the subject of steel helmets, the Under Secretary of War recently said: "Not only have the proper authorities concerned adopted a pattern of steel helmet, but large quantities have been sent out and arc still being sent out. The scale of supply will be that recommended by the Field Marshal Command-ing-in-Chicf. There has been no slavish adherence to any existing pattern of helmet. The authorities, surgical and other, mentioned in the last two parts of the question, have been consulted on the various points mentioned by my lion, friend." THE DEADLY MACHINE GUX. "It is a generally accepted military fact," states'a paragraph in a Wellington paper, "that a machine gun is equal to 12i rifles in its capacity to pump bullets into the ranks of the enemy. Tests made at the rifle range at Trentham on Saturday proved this comparison to be correct, there being forty rifles against three machine guns. The competition between the two arms consisted in half-minute periods of firing at outline targets. In that time the machine guns fired 358 shots, while the 40 riflemen got off 348 rounds. The slight advantage of 10 shots in favour of the machine guns was discounted, however, by the fact ihat the gunners only got 27 targets, against the riflemen's 48. This was explained by an expert as being due to the machine gun fire being so concentrated that many of the bullets went between the targets. The machine gun sections have been given a good deal of target practice of late, but on Saturday there were some new men on the guns, which might account for the few actual hits made."

AXD HENCE THE PAINS. Is this a discovery? We have been hearing a great deal about the mysterious pains many of our soldiers in training have been feeling under their pinafores, ft is very humorous, really, the way we talk of gastritis in these days. They used to be so very much more direct at school, and mothers in those days knew just how to locate the pain and what to do-to shift it.. The ladies of to-day (one makeß no reference to age) get more bustled. All this.by the way, however. Thus a Wellington paper, quite innocently: "When the Tenth Infantry was manoeuvring near Mungaroa, after the march from- Featherston, the defenders of the Maori Bank tunnel in the night attack whiled away their vigil by eating blackberries. In other skirmishes and reconnaissances, too, the men have not been so intent on the enemy's blood as to forgo the pleasures of a repast of the berries. On one occasion a. large party of girls who were blaekberrying were surprised by an outpost, the members of which were also seeking the blackberry braniHes. The girls fled, and the soldiers, after gathering all they could eat, filled the tins and baskets which had been left in the flight, and which were doubtless gathered up when the soldiers had gone. In another instance a sentry halted a soldier and told him to put up his hands. But the man's right hand kept stealing down towards a blackberry bush which grew there. As the sentry regarded that blackberry bush as strictly his own, he told the soldier he would shoot him dead if he didn't keep his hands above his head." TRAINING UNDER CANVAS. It would seem from the syllabus of training outlined by the department for the training camps that the authorities regard it as necessary to devote most of the time at camp this year to preliminary training, little or no advanced work being prescribed. The fact that the bulk of the Territorials in camp this year will be promoted Cadets (the older Territorials being nearly all away with the Expeditionary Force) would, no doubt, prompt the decision to concentrate upon preliminary training in the camps. This will necessitate the attendance at the camps of a large number of the instructional staff, whose absence will mean extra work for those remaining to attend to recruiting, the training of the Cadete, and office routine. The 3rd Regiment, in camp at Motutapu, is being trained on the Trentham syllabus, a scheme of fundamental thoroughness. The exceedingly parchedup nature of Motutapu at the present time would make fiela work an unpleasant and irritating business. The ground is as slippery as glass, and manoeuvres could be carried out only under great difficulties. COMPULSORY VOLUNTEERS. Nobody doubts the success of compulsory military training in New Zealand, but not a few old volunteers look back enviously to the days when units of all arms were clc«c corporations, with full power to throw out the man who declined to do his bit .with the reet by attending parades regularly and trying his hardest to become efficient. There were, of connse, many slack and inefficient Tirtrlß, bat a* it» beet the system prodijced not ft'fev corps that leached high.' standard of military

fitness—always up to-full strength, with long lists of young fellows waiting for the next vacancy, and eager to pay the guinea or so demanded as entrance fee. : Two recruit drills a week were not at all out of the way: and the annual camp was-no light affair, as all training had to be done before and .after the Jay's civilian toil. It may be gratifying to some old volunteers to know that even under present-day conditions the voluntary principle has not died out. There is one Territorial unit in the city (one doesn't care to mention names) that for a couple of years or more has trained under very awkward conditions, involving an hour and a half's travel every drill night. In addition to this, the drill required of the men is of a rather exacting character. It says much for the spirit of many lads in these days that this particular corps has never lacked recruits,'who have come forward from the cadets.in greater numbers than could be dealt with, fully knowing the unsatisfactory conditions under which the weekly drills are held. The officers i have made it a standing rule to inform every would-be recruit that hard work is .the motto of the corps, and that it is vain to expect an easy time. The powers higher up. with a proper appreciation of the needs of the case, have given the officer in charge the right to get riJ of slackers, and this right has been, as freely exercised as ever in the old days, with the best or results. In the last annual camp the men—a large proportion of whom were recruits—were put through a particularly stiff course, and the unwilling members, when it was all over, could have been counted on the fingers of. one hand. The work of the camp meant hard graft t>y all hands from daylight to dusk, but a willing spirit and the underlying knowledge that there was an easier job to be had by the lazy man in almost any other branch of the service, kept all hands on their mettle, and thus the union of voluntaryism -with compulsion fully proved its worth.