VOLUNTEER AND SERVICE NOTES.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 6964, 18 January 1888, Page 3

VOLUNTEER AND SERVICE NOTES.

[By "As Ex-Natal Officer* in the Weekly Press.] Major-General Downes, Secretary of the Defence Department, Victoria, resigns his position on March 31st. From twenty to twenty-five South Australians intend competing in the New South Wales Centennial Rifle Matches. The Governments of South Australia Victoria and New South Wales have given the teams passes over their respective railways. The Earl of Carnarvon, who is now visiting the Australian Colonies, was President of the Royal Commission on the Defence of the British possessions at Home and abroad (1876), and proved himself then and since a persistent and unwavering advocate for Colonial defences, and a strenuous supporter of all that can promote the unity of the British Empire, country Volunteer corps included. The New Zealand Volunteer and Civil Service Gazette thus concludes an able article on the defences of New Zealand. " It would be sheer folly to dispense with the services of country corps—many of whom are superior to city companies, and could be readily moved to the main centres when required—or check the grand cadet movement: if such be the recommendation of General Schaw, we cannot compliment him on his good judgment." The advice is not such as might have been expected from a general officer, and the writer is not far astray in his summing up, "That it would be sheer folly." The superiority of tlie country corps to city companies is not so apparent, and it would be interesting to learn where it is found. It is possible that country life may enable men to keep in better training than life in the cities, and there may be individual corps in the country which would compete successfully with individual corps in the citj, and vice versa; a comparison of this kind, however, is unnecessary and somewhat mal-a-propos. It is fair to say that Volunteers, as a whole, construe in no niggardly spirit the engagements which they contract on joining, and the officers go voluntarily far beyond the irreducible minimum of military qualifications required from them by the regulations. t If they cannot have as many-oppor-tunities for drill as are necessary, the fault is not with Volunteers. Good, sound barrack-yard drill is the only real foundation of efficiency, and the. habit and manner of dealing with and commanding soldiers can only be learned by practical work. ■ The system is ntit compulsory but permissive; until a fixed and compulsory amount of practical work can be exacted, efficiency will not be secured. This does not allude to class firing, which is compulsory. ' ' Our Volunteers are not equipped as they should be, they have little to thank'the Government for. A large number of them do their best to become good marksmen, and the 16th December proved that best to be anything but contemptible; the praise of the Commander of the Ist Battalion on that occasion could not. well have been higher, and it was well deserved. . There are also a number of men who do not care so long as they can get through their class firing, and no matter how many opportunities offered for drill if it was not compulsory they would not attend. These men are not wanted, and will never make soldiers. The Nero Zealand Volunteer and Civil Servi-ce Gazette remarks that " a collection of the "reports" which bave- been made on the Defences and Volunteer: Force in New Zealand would be amusing, if not instructive, especially so if the total cost of obtaining these reports were also given." When all of the reports shall have been made, a full volume will be printed (this will not be during the present generation). For the present we shall escape Lord | Wolsely; we may expect for the next Brackenbury and Sir Evelyn Wood. What times these Imperial officers are | going to have. General Schaw is not selfish, and wishes to give other veterans an opportunity for recruiting. The present financial position of the colony, which cannot afford the miserable capitation for country corps according to the general, is I not so bad as to prevent the recommendation of aquintennial tax in the shape of an Imperial officer to report on the defences. An inducement for aspiring youth to enter the British Army. You may not live to be a Field Marshal or the Com-mander-in-Chief of the British Array, for are there not Princes of the blood royal to fill these important offices; but, my son, you m*y loot forward to a nice, soft downy thing ere you enter fully upon your dotage. You may yet five to have the glorious privilege of going the round of England's distant possessions to report upon their defences, and thus the boy leaving Eton for Sandhurst, looking down thc long vista of a professional career, sees in the distance one of the sweetest rewards of military life. Was ever anything so absurd as' this inspection mania with its attendant costliness ? It is a great pity that any further encouragement should be given to it. If Victoria statesmen want Lord Wolseley, by all means let them get him, New Zealand should not be drawn into the expense. There will be no end to it, if we are to decide upon plans only to be disorganised by the opinion of a military visitor, whoso vitws are in direct opposition to the next, whose opinions are again partly in accord with the man before last, but totally at variance with the last. We shall be withoutasystemorelsewithasortof one without a responsible parent, like Topsy who never had "no father or mother but " fjrowed.'' If we must get outside advice it is better to assemble at once a council of military experts and act upon its proposals; the absurdity of acting upon the opinion of any one man, when such action upsets the results of the opinions of other men as capable as the disturber, is so clear as to make it marvellous that such a course is i contemplated, and it is positively rullculous when we remember that England, after years of groping about for a system, has at length fallen back upon the advice of a man in New Zealand (Sir William Jervois) j and is arranging her defences upon the i base of his recommendations, whilst we jn ! New Zealand are wasting money lavishly in seeking foreign advice. We shall have others, the disease is intercolonial, the evil will go on, yet during its course, it would be well to make an effort to branch out and act for ourselves. Surely we are not so helpless that we must be beaten about like a ship without a rudder. We are told that Lord Wolseley cannot be spared by the War Office, but that Major-Generai Brackenbury and Sir Evelyn Wood "will probably come. All good" men in their respective lines, but each of them had a different view on the j question of lowering the Artillery estab- j lishment which a few months ago so disturbed military circles at Home, and each would probably take different views of our defences and Volunteers. Lord Carnarvon is now in Sydney, for years he has considered the question of defences, he may be looked upon as an expert, he is not without military experience, his opinion at Home on questions of defence and Volunteering carry groat weight*. His letter in the London Times ot 30th August last, produce:* considerable discussion and was lauded for the patriotic care with which the writer's views had been formed. The runt-, published a leading article upon it. Neither the soldier, the sailor, nor the statesman coald say a word against his views about the defences of the distant possessions of England. This man is in the midst of those who talk of sending for Wolseley and others, and as far as we can learn has not been consulted on the subject of defence or Volunteers. It Is time an end should bo nut to the mania referred to, if it is decided that we have reached the maximum amount that we can afford to pay for our Volunteers, it should at least be decided also that we have reached the maximum amount that we can, under any circumstances, pay for giving military veterans a comfortable cruise round the world at the expense of the taxpayers of New Zealand.