COLONEL FOX'S REPORT.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8598, 27 September 1893, Page 3

COLONEL FOX'S REPORT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —There is a good and wholesome rule forbidding Volunteers to take part in any discussion on Volunteering matters in a newspaper. As a matter of fact, with the intermission of a few years, 1 have been a Volunteer from 1865 up to last year, and it may easily be taken for granted that one year as a civilian has not abated my interest in matters affecting Volunteering. Well do I remember the solemn presentation of colours to the Canterbury Volunteers in Kohler's Gardens, on the Lincoln road (I think), in the year 1863. We were then expecting a Russian invasion, and Volunteering was looked on as a very real thing. From that date to the present every war scare has resulted in a startling revival of the Volunteer movement, each such revival only doomed to be crushed out by the apathy of each successive Government. Even those amongst us who have studiously avoided Volunteering have looked with quiet contempt upon 61ie efforts of those whose voluntary work has saved them and others from the unpleasant, though at times necessary, evils of conscription. To show the practical use which can be made of Volunteers when actuated by a patriotic spirit I shall mention "The American War of Independence," *' Our Several Maori Wars," and the more recent efforts of the "Boers" in special connection with Majuba Hill. From time to time New Zealand has secured the services of military men of mark to report on the existing state of her defences, and to find ont their present value with a view to future improvements. The reports of Generals Shaw and Edwards were quietly shelved. The only noticeable result of these reports was the early retirement of a Volunteer gentleman, wellknown under the soubriquet of " The Political Major" and "The Port Admiral." Then Colonel Fox is specially selected to take sole charge here and report. The general consensus ot opinion throughout New Zealand affirms Colonel Fox's report to be the most thorough, conscientious, and honest report yet placed in the hands of any New Zealand Government. Colonel Fox has judged our volunteers by a high standard, and while they have not come through the ordeal at all badly, he points out in the most straightforward way possible sundry I means by which their efficiency can be increased without further cost to the country. At present, owing chiefly to obsolete arms, and in a secondary way to want of organisaI tion and discipline, their use is almost nil. We have costly batteries and about seven rounds of ammunition per gun to work them with, ehould the occasion arise. We have antiquated and worn-out rifles' utterly unfit tocompete either in range or-accuracy with the more modern arms of warfare. We have a volunteer force, the intelligence and physique of which is undeniable, a force which by its numbers saves us from the militiaconscription, a force which every three or four years supplies us with a reserve of trained men, and yet a force, the value of which unrecognised by the general public, barely patronised by the Government of the country, is surely and quickly going to the dogs. A force which is prepared to submit to discipline, which is full of the best and youngest blood of every class in the colony, which is inured to hard, knocks and negligent treatment. This force I say, sir, is to be handed over to the tender mercies of the ex-publican of Kumara —1 beg his pardon, the present Premier of New Zealand and Defence Minister the Hon. R. J. Seddon. The keen observation and trained military experience of Colonel Foxare to be put on one side in order that the Ministry of the Honourable the Premier may not lose the possible votes of a few corps which Colonel Fox has recommended to be disbanded. The efficiency of our Volunteer system and the safety of the country, the honour of our wives, daughters and sweetheart*,- are evidently things of a too Conservative tendency to merit any attention from a " Liberal" Government. Allow mc, sir, to make one prophecy and I have done. If Colonel Fox's report be not acted on, we shall have no volnnteer force but a compulsory militia. All volunteers worthy of the name will resign in disgust, and no New Zealand Government, however "Liberal" it may be, will be able to bring sufficient pressure to bear to suborn any British officer possessing, either the rank, abilities, or manhood of Colonel Fox into giving what he knows to be a false impression of the value of the force then existing. —Yours, &c., . , . Mort.-Davie.