Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, MAY 13, 1861.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 174, 13 May 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, MAY 13, 1861.

We turn from the painful and humiliating contemplation of the disastrous affair at the “ Gate Pah,” full particulars of which we have already given, to the subject of our Provincial defences, and the system pursued by the authorities in that regard. Everybody knows that there has been a great deal of fuss about volunteering, and Militia, and what not, and no small amount of petty and absurd squabbles about preferment and appointments and such like matters of a semi-military nature —in short, a general disorganization of the people in an endeavor to organize the Militia, and to stir up the dormant lighting and martial propensities of our young men. But some how or other, the result of all this to-do and talk is not encouraging, certainly as far as the Militia Companies in the Country Districts are concerned, or as far as we can at present judge in the matter of the Defence Force. We will coniine our remarks for the present to this last description of levies, they being, if not the most useful, certainly the most expensive.

Little is at present k.town of this body of men. Their doings are shrouded in mystery, and we gather vague and not very clear reports of what is going on amongst them ; all of which tends to confirm our preconceived suspicions that all is not quite right, and that things in that quarter require a little wholesome ventilation.

It is the duty of the Press to detect .and expose abuses affecting the efficiency of the Public Service, and we shall, without hesitation, in a short space, expose a state of things as regards the Defence Corps in this Province which is, as far as we can judge, utterly subversive of discipline and control. When this body of men was enrolled, a certain person of eminent distinction who is intimately connected with them, and who, we are told is an expert in horse-jobbing for Military purposes, undertook to mount the men. So far so good. With that ready tact and subtle judgment which is only obtained by considerable experience, the person in question, by way of accomplishing his undertaking, proposes that each man shall find his own horse, or, in other words, that he, the undertaker, shall provide it for him, which is much the same thing with a difference. It is according!} done. All the dilapidated screw's and sorry weeds to be found in the Province instantly derive a marketable value, much to the satisfaction of the owners, who had long since given up every hope of effecting a sale, and are handed over to the surprised and not particularly gratified trooper. It is Hobson’s choice with those men, they must take whatever is given them, in shape of horse-flesh, and make the best of it. The evil does not stop here. The horse is paid for, not by the Government, not out of Public funds provided in that behalf, but by a series of vexatious deductions from the troopers’ pay. Nevertheless, although the horse has been bought and paid for by the man, that horse in practice is no more that man’s property after the transaction than it was before. It could not be otherwise, for it is incompatible with military discipline for any man to do what he likes with his own. In short, from the selection, the price, downwards or upwards, whichever it may be, to the uses the animal is to be put to, all depends entirely on the caprice of the Commandant, from whose decisions, there is, of course, no appeal.

Here, then, in the most vital part of the efficiency of thig kind of troop is to be found a fatal germ, and by consequence, and very naturally, a great deal of dissatisfaction amongst the men.

Matters are not improved by an order coming from Head-quarters to the effect that every man must be provided with a good horse, which, order amounts practically to remounting the entire troop. Here is a pretty state of things after a year’s training, during which the troops have seen no service, it is found necessary to get a re-mount all round, and to begin again, step by step, the arduous and lengthy operation of re-drilling and training another lot of horses for the same lot of men, and those horses, which the officer, whose duty it maybe to determine the question, rejects, are to be sold for whatever they will fetch, and other animals substituted in their place,'and the difference in price of course made up by the men. M e submit that this way of re-mounting troopers is ill-advised and subversive, in the highest degree, of military discipline, while at the same time, it opens up a field for the most corrupt and unscrupulous jobbery.

Turn now from the horses to the men. It is more than questionable whether the men have ever been exercised in the use of their carbines, or at all events that exercise has been made entirely subservient to the more showy but far less useful sword practice. We are not likely to be contradicted when we say that one good shot is worth half-a-do-zen good swords in the kind of fighting we meet with here. The sword is very well in its way, but it is little better than an allegorical allusion in New Zealand warfare, and

the word “ sword” is used more to give point to a sentence than as descriptive oan actual fact in practical use. The system also under which the men receive rations and forage is clearly and palpably defective, bringing, as it does, the officers down from the high estate of command to that of being little better than petty shopkeepers and caterers for the men.

Nor can we allow the canteen system to pass withot censure. It is clear that a vast amount of liquor is disposed of in canteens over and above any, even the most thirsty demands of the troopers. This should be seen to. Nothing can more demoralize and disorganize, and sow the seeds of disaffection more eflectually amongst men with little or nothing to do, and no sort of recreation or amusement to occupy their minds, than a wholesale and unchecked supply of intoxicating drinks. The people will, sooner or later, have to pay for all these things, and they are therefore entitled to require that they get something satisfactory for their money.