A MILITARY SCANDAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12533, 21 June 1901, Page 4

A MILITARY SCANDAL.

The Volunteer %amp at Newtown Park seems to have provided Wellington* and the "colony with a disgraceful scandal. The particulars of the affair are supplied by our Wellington' correspondent, and there "is no need to repeafc them here. But to our mind the deplorable feature of the trouble was not the behaviour of Colonel Penton's four "infernal cowards," but the utter failure of the military authorities to make adequate provision : for the housing and feeding of a- ihandM of visiting volunteers. The heavy rain turned the Park into a quagmire, but it is dear I that mere discomfort was the least of the men's grievances. Their horses fared as badly >ag they did themselves. The food seems to have been had and ill-cocked,, and the legitimate complaints of the men were ignored). The. officers, we are given to understand, attempted- to remedy the trouble, but failed, presumably because of the indifference of the Defence Office. These hardships muat.surely have been avoidable in the centre of a large "- town, yet they aro described as more severe "than any undergone by the soldters in South Africa. The troopers whose thoughtlessness or malice led them to make demonstrations in the streets were guilty, of course, of serious breaches of discipline, but, con-sidering'-the provocation, their own officers should have been left to deal with them. In any case, there was no excuse for Colonel Penton's petulance. The public will blame, not the men, who are already punished, but the military authori.ties, and Colonel Penton himself will' not escape censure. It was his business to * see that his suboiKiinates I were making proper arrangements for the military demonstrations, and even if he was expected' to -be an attendance on the "Royal suite, he might have spared an hour to inspect the Newtown camp. The incident should be an object lesson for Christehurch. We are sure that the ten or twelve thousand volunteers amd cadets who assemble here will be better treated) than were the men at Newtown', but we have already had an tration of the methods of the Wellington ! authorities. The cadets, for instance, would have fared badly if it had mot been for the readiness of the Education Board and School Committees to assist the local Defence Office, and as it is the officers in charge will have a hard task to provide for all the wants of the little soldiers. Adults may be expected to help themselves to a great extent, but the public do not realise the constant supervision required by a large body of boys. We. hope that their officers have a • proper appreciation of their responsibility. The work iri connection with the .review is rendered unusually heavy by the season of the year, but we have no reason to suppose that there will be, in Christ-, church, anything like the deplorable affair at Wellington.