The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1886.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 7925, 30 July 1886, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1886.

The Volunteers are like Ireland—they are never without a grievance. .Like Ireland’s, too, their grievance, when looked into, is only too apt to prove substantial. Of all their grievances, the most solid, perhaps, is the want of a rifle-range. There may be differences of opinion as to the use-, fulness of much that the Volunteers do. But, granted that we ought to have Volunteers at all—and nearly everyone grants that—they certainly ought to become marksmen. Otherwise they remain a useless sham. Battles now-a-days are not usually decided by bayonet charges, nor do they resolve themselves into melees, in which the clubbed rifle is the most effective weapon. In modern warfare Providence is on the side of the best shots as well on that of the big battalions. The example of the Transvaal Boers ought to be written in letters of gold and posted up in all drillsbeds for the benefit of irregular troops. The Boers, who won at Majnba Hill, had probably never formed a hollowsquare in their lives, and at wheeling into line might have received a lesson from even the Christchurch Eeserve corps. But they could make certain of hitting a man four hundred yards off. Our Volunteers can never, perhaps, hope to rival Boer marksmen. They cannot pass their lives rifle in hand, or practise on antelopes and bustards. But by diligent practice they can.become sufficiently expert with the rifle to make things unpleasant for regular troops, and when provided with'cover to be as good skirmishers as any European troops. Good skirmishers have ere now spoiled the fire of batteries of artillery by driving the gunners from their guns. But only consistent practice at proper rifle ranges can makegood skirmishers of our men. Mr Ballauce seems to think that a large portion, at least, of the expense of providing ranges ought to be defrayed by the, Volunteers themselves. In this Mr Ballance reminds us that his portfolio is not that of Justice. The Volunteer already gives his time, strength, and, to some extent, money also to the country. Surely the country ought to be ready to furnish him with the first requisite to make an effective fighter of him. (these remarks apply to all centres of population in the Colony. Where the Government cannot do anything, the public ought to take the matter up, and subscribe the sum wanted. People will do this unless all the warmth and deitermination to make our defences a reality, which redeemed the Russian scare from being mera childish panic, has already cooled

down to zero. In Christchurch tlie question of a range has gone a step further than the difficulty of finance, The lion in the path is the matter df site. We trust that, though, ot course, due regard must be had tl the important question of safetyj neither, the Drainage Board nor any other body will put any unnecessary obstacle in the way. If ever there was an occasion for the display of a little public spirit, here it is.

Cue dry, treeless plains require only two things to make them fertile and pleasant to dwell in. These two things, trees and running water, are being* supplied, albeit slowly. Irrigation has been one of the questions of the year, and has not been discussedAs for trees, every man can be his own ploattar, and are. But as others are not, and •have to do the good work on a small scale, it ia cheering to know that planting is not quite neglected by the State. Many of our readers may have forgotten, or may never, have known, that Canterbury possesses a Planting Board, and that this Board is not asleep. During the season 1885 it seems to have made fair progress, judging from the report presented to the Surveyor-General by the Board’s Chairman (Mr E. G. Wright) on the 6th Of the present month! Prom this it appears that the Board dealt with 621 acres during the . past season. Of these 100 acres were sown with wattle-seed not successfully. On thel other hand, the -blue-gum seed sown in 167 acres showed good promise, a result put Mr Wright' to the season s exceptional, warmth. Moreoyer, the seed whichWp o - ell was for the most part gathered trees locally grown. Of. the acreage, a large part was planuq with young pines. Mr Wright points put that the three varieties subject to the well-known blight, and which, are p. silvestris, p. pinaster, and p. austriaca, have been struck out of the Board list of useful trees. Except that 5 they are hardy and quickgrowing varieties, their disappearance from the roll in future need occasion no special. regret. - As; evergreens go, they are not particularly beautiful; and in this district are anything but; uncommon. In their , etead the Planting Board is using the larch, the abies excelsa, and one or two other hardy kinds. Most of the land thus planted last season lies in Ashburton County, and some near Hororata and Coalgate. Of these districts we may simply say that no parts of Canterbury want trees more,’both for beauty and utility. The parching heat of the sun on the open, and utterly exposed plain will not be quickly forgotten by any one who felt it last January. But even the sun in time of drought is more tolerable, and certainly not more destructive, than the north-wosters, which, collecting all their forces in the funnel - shaped gorges of the Eakaia and its sister streams, make life unbearable, and farming ruinous, in the unluoky places which they strike during the last few weeks before harvest. : Finally; it may be noted of Mr Wright’s report that it is rather re-assuring as regards the damage done the plantations by the fires of last summer. Two blocks between Ohertsey and Ashburton were injured more or less, although care had been taken beforehand to plough up a strip of land around them twenty feet wide. Greater care is promised next . time. More water-races, however, will be better than even greater care, and if times continue to improve there can be no doubt as to what the energetic local bodies of Ashburton County will do in this respect. It is, indeed, fortunate that tree-planting is not, in Canterbury, a mere question of gratifying the artistic sense. Otherwise, those sensitive persons to whom a bare, dry level never ceases to be painful might live and die amongst us without seeing the plains transformed. But even nor’-westers and droughts have their uses, and, thanks to them, another thirty years will see trees and running streams do for this Province generally what gardens and an ample water supply have done for the surr roundings of Christchurch.