HAMILTON. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) February 7.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXII, Issue 2683, 21 February 1866, Page 5

HAMILTON. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) February 7.

NoTwirHSTAin>iNG- the intimafckm that no pay is to be allowed for such days as the men are called up for drill, the turn-out on the first of the month was as soldier-like, numerous, and nearly as orderly, as on former occasions. There were a few symptoms of impatience among some of the more impulsive of the men, but the steady and decorous bearing of the great majority speedily put them out of countenance. The feeling seemed to be that, in accordance with the terms of their enrolment, they should turn out whenever desired; and that, if their claim for pay was •till resisted, they should firmly and without any fuss sue the Government in the civil courts. After the parade was dismissed, there was an open-air meeting of the men, when the terms of the proclamation ordering tbe parade were discussed with both temper and judgment. If, it was argued, the parade wa.s under the Militia Act, why were not all the men in the district, who were subject to its provisions, required to attend ? If, on the other hand, it was a parade under the Waikato Militia Regulations, which it appeared to be, as none else were ordered to appear, on what principle was the pay withheld for muster in the present year when they were allowed for those of the past? The anomalous position, too, of the commanding officer was commented on, the proclamation ordering the parade in terms of the Militia Act making no mention of who is to take the command —a circumstance that favoured the view of the parade being one strictly confined to the Waikato Militia, as the officer commanding the regiment commanded the parade. It is hardly fair to put an officer into so awkward a position, as hia authority is thereby liable to be questioned, and the good order of the parade endangered; and it is highly desirable that all doubt on that point should be put an end to. In connection with this subject, I may mention that the adjourned case of Enoi y. East, in which one of the men sued the commanding officer for one day's pay for the preceding muster, was disposed of last court day. Mr. Mainwaring dismissed the case as against Captain East, on the ground that he was an agent of the Government; and, on the pursuer asking that the evidence of his agency be produced, the Magistrate held that that was not necessary, as he himself knew that he was an agent. The commanding officer read two communications on parade, both relating to back pay.- The one referred to men whose land had been condemned as unsuitable, who number something like twenty-five per cent, of the whole regiment, and who were returned to consecutive duty till other lands were provided for them; these men are to receive their bade pay. The other referred to such, as were released from consecutive duty, but still retained on actual service until sth of December last, and who, the communication stated, are not to reoeive their back pay. The Government assign as a reason that the Auckland Militia, although on actual service, if not doing duty, receive no pay. The men are not satisfied with the reason assigned; they rely, not on any agreement made with the Auckland or any other Militia, but on the agreement under which they themselves took service, and which provides that they art to receive pay, &c, until released from actual service. If the Auckland Militia are to supply the rule by which the claims of the Waikato Militia are to be settled, then the Government may withhold the Crown grant as well as the pay of the latter, inasmuch, as the Auckland Militia get no land; and the solemn agreement entered into with the military Mttlers gets lost in the last passed Militia Act. Such a. mode of meeting claims must operate very •injuriously on the public credit of the colony. Meantime active measures are being taken by the men to try the question in the court, and officers and men hare each subscribed one day's pay to begin with. A perfect understanding exists with the men of the 2nd and 3rd .Regiments; and before long the sad spectacle will be presented of a body of poor men trying in-the courts of law to wring what they believe to be their just rights from a reluctant Government. To this there w2l shortly be added another grievance; information having been received that the issue of a year's rations u to cease on the expiry f of twelve

months after the men were released from consecutive duty, instead of, as provided in the agreement, a year »fl*r being dismissed from actual service — which will mate a difference of from nine to two months earlier in respective instances than would otherwise be the case. A public meeting was held this day in the marketplace, for the purpose of hearing the views of delegates from the other military settlements, and appointing one on behalf of the Hamilton men, to proceed to Auckland, there to institute proceedings for the recovery of the back pay. There were present at the meeting nearly every officer »nd man off pay ; and the business was conducted with order, decorum, and unanimity. Several of the speakers dwelt on the propriety of the men continuing to yield a steady and cheerful obedience to orders, and of faithfully performing every duty contained in ths printed regulations. The first resolution pledged the meeting to try the question of the baok pay as far as money, public support, and the assistance of the sister colonies will enable them to prosecute it; and the second authorised the committee to write to the sister colonies with that view. The article in the Daily Southebk Oboss, of 30th. ultimo, on the subjeot, which had opportunely arrived, was read amid bursts of acclamation, repeated at intervals again and again; and three times three cheers for Mr. Creighton were rung out from three hundred lusty throats in a style that startled the echoes in our Sleepy Hollow. An interesting narrative of the proceedings at Cambridge was given by Mr. Brown, the delegate from that settlement ; and the meeting then appointed Mr. Carlisle as their delegate, and instructed him to proceed at once to Auckland, and lose no time. Mr. Carlisle moved the second resolution, and in the course of his observations showed such an amount of ability and clearheadedness, together with such a mastery of his subject, as proved him to be eminently qualified for the duties assigned him. The prognostications^ of the Australian press, when the men were being enrolled, were recalled by several of the speakers^and many bitter reflections made on themselves for disregarding them. It is a matter in which the whole colony is interested that* this question be settled with out going into court, for, let the issuo be what it may, the colonial reputation must be irreparably damaged. The Australian press, trumpet-tongued, will again take up the matter ; the story of the men's wrongs will be carriod to the mother country $ and when it is learned that one Government repudiates the bargain made with one body of men, on the ground that no such bargain exists with another body of men, coming on the back of the flagrant attempt of a preceding Government to evade their pecuniary liabilities for the auxiliary troops on the pretence that they did not want them, the already low estimate in which New Zealand is held in England will be both intensified and justified.