COMPULSORY PARADES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 101, 29 April 1912, Page 8

COMPULSORY PARADES

* DIRECTOR OF STAFF DUTIES EXPLAINS. Referring to the compulsory parades under the Defence Act the Director of Staff Duties (Colonel. E. S. Heard) explains that without such parades there will Be a tendency to put off training by some men in the hope that more parades will be called later and that they will be able to put in the necessary number of. appearances. "There is," the colonel says, "another side to the question, and that is that oiitside Wellington theTe are insufficient instructors, territorial and others, to hold more than the average two parades a month, and if men absent themselves on the chance of more parades being held later on to, enable them to make up those they have missed they will find at the end of the year that they huve failed to fulfil their obligations. If this plea is put forward in Court it is very doubtful if conviction will be obtained, and if this is then the case the whole compulsory element of the scheme is wrecked. Outside Wellington, Napier, Hastings, and Wanganui, the average number of drill centres to a squadron or company is about 15. To hold a weekly parade at these centres it would necessitate the territorial^ officers attending a parade every night, some of these parades being as much as twenty miles from their homes. In addition to this, they might travel this twenty miles to find no man present. There are over four hundred drill centres in Wellington and only twenty-six permanent instructors available. Hence the need for regular attendance at parades,' 1