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Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8149, 21 April 1887, Page 4

There is one thing about the late Volunteer encampments of which the public may fairly feel very satisfied. It is the unanimous verdict of approval which the citizen soldiery have won from old soldiers. There is no more critical observer than your old soldier, and up till lately there was no one who regarded the Volunteers with more contempt. Every old soldier was proud of his young friends individually, for he could not help admiring military spirit. But the force collectively he regarded as quite useless. The result of the

revival of volunteering among ns has proved that the old soldier, wherever found, is open to conviction. His verdict. North and South, as he mustered in force to see the evolutions, is, that the men who went through them are good troops. The practical inference is that, as in the Volunteer Force we have our money’s worth, the defence of the Colony is no longer a sham. All honour to those who, at some personal sacrifice, have devoted themselves so loyally to the public service. We trust that the good result may continue. It will depend on more than the willingness of the rank and file to turn out on all possible occasions. There must be harmony in the higher branches —and harmony in a citizen army not entirely military, must be, to a large extent, based on the “give and take” principle. Military men must not, for example, expect too strict adherence to military rule and military etiquette. Harmony was slightly disturbed among us the other day, but its restoration, through the good sense of all concerned, gives us a good guarantee of future stability, we hope, and we think with reason. In the North a saddening spectacle has lately been presented by a Court of Enquiry, the leading feature of which was a legal question as to whether a certain battalion had or had not a legal existence. Anything more subversive of discipline it is impossible to conceive. A battalion on parade is practically a battalion ; it should be treated as such. Any technical errors there may be are things to be amended, not to be used to free officers or men from the restraints or obligations of duty, or to shield them from the consequences of neglect. We do not say that the officers who were before the Court of Enquiry at Auckland the other day neglected their duty. But we contend that in all enquiries into allegations of neglect, the enquiry should be into facts, to the exclusion of legal technicalities. There is a provision in many of our statutes by which it is expressly enacted that failure to comply with certain formal conditions shall not invalidate. The same principle should apply to the Volunteer Act. It is obviously impossible to have harmony, if there is any suspicion that men are not prepared to accept their positions without formal perfection. Neither can there be harmony in the absence of a certainty of evenhanded justice. This will probably occur to many who read the Garner case. Major Garner, the officer commanding a Volunteer district, has been dismissed without being called upon to meet the ch.arges against him. According to a report of a case heard in the Magistrate’s Court at Napier, the Major behaved with unbecoming violence under the provocation of a subordinate. If this is the charge on which he has been dismissed, why was he not brought before a Court of Enquiry? and why is the subordinate not punished for the provocation which he offered? These are all matters concerning the higher ranks. The history of the last few weeks does not, with one exception, contain much of anything questionable among the lower. The exception is the behaviour of some Volunteers at Taranaki. There is no necessity to be unduly severe about the horse-play, or the exuberances of youth. The General in command assures the Colony that, in his opinion, there was nothing more. Doubtless he is right. But we should like to ask—Firstly, What the young men went to the Salvation Army Barracks for at all ? and secondly, Why did the officers think it necessary to beg the Salvationist Captain to alter bis programme of proceedings ? These things show that in all probability the exuberances of youth were carried somewhat too far. It does not appear after all, however, that very much harm was done to anyone or to anyone’s property. If the Force never has to answer any worse complaints, it is sure of a prosperous future.