THE VOLUNTEER DRILL-SHED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume L, Issue 5459, 21 August 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE VOLUNTEER DRILL-SHED.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LYTTELTON TIMES. Sie, —I see by Hansard that Mr Aynsley, the member for Lyttelton, asked the Minister for Public Works whether the Government proposed to take immediate steps to prevent the drill-shed from falling down. Mr Macandrew’s reply was that the commanding officer had sent in a report, wherein it was stated it would cost £l5O to put it in repair, and there wore no funds at present out of which such a cost could be defrayed. Allow me to ask through your columns what this means. Is a building erected at a cost of some £IBOO or so, used by the police and volunteers, and always available for any contingency of a militia service to be allowed to tumble down ? Is this a specimen of the administration of affairs contemplated in the talked of rc-orgauisation of the volunteer force ? The members for the city were present when the Governor inspected some of the corps. Have they nothing to say when such an answer is given P We hear of guns ordered from England, and so forth. Do the Government suppose the sight of these wonderful 64-pounders would deter an enemy, or that an enemy would observe such rigid punctilio as to attack our batteries from the front only ?

It inquires no soldier to tell us that if you have guns you must have men to work them—not only these, but men to support them as light infantry—or the first encounter may be like that of Mens. Jourdain with his servant girl Nicolli, when the latter, shrinking in carte when her master was carefully disposed in tierce, overthrew (ho scientist with a broom stick, In short, if you have men you must have a drill-shed. Our Government do not appear to see this. Mr Moovhousc is, I believe, a volunteer officer in Wellington, and a member of Parliament in Christchurch. Suppose he tries his hand.—l am, &c., QUERY.