THE VOLUNTEERS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 1105, 5 February 1891, Page 3

THE VOLUNTEERS.

(" Oamara Mail." One effect that the change of Ministry is likely to produce is arevival of interest in the Volunteer movement, and, unless colonists were prepared to see our voluntary army die out altogether, that revival of interest will come none too soon. Another year of such muddling and mismanagement, such wasteful expenditure.and wanton affront to our citizen soldiers, as have characterised the administration of the DL-fenee Department 7 by the late Government, would have been about sutfieiei:t to have extinguished the last spark of patriotism, without which the voluntary \ i system cannot he maintained. Armed with poor and ineffective weapon**—weapons thuthave become obsolete outside of this colony—and supplied with inferior ammunition, the Volunteers have had the mortiSca- ' tion of seeing money that might well have been applied to the better equipment of the force squan- ' ( dered in proviili-t-r for ret'red army officers, who, with , , high-sound::!;* titles and empty purses, have pounced I ; down upon this simple colony. With very few excep- I i tions, these military pensioners have brought lii tie to i recommend them for emp'oymerit i'l connection with the colonial voluntary army. Thtir knowledge of i military matters belongs to a school which, like our ' < weapons, has become obsolete. They know nothing ] of modern military science, and their training abso- j lutely incapacitates them for any connection with an army composed of citizen soldiers. Their sole aim j has been to create an old-fashioned standing army, i with themselves at its head in receipt of substantial > [ pay. What wonder that the Volunteers have pretty '. well come to the conclusion thatthey were not wanted, and that many of the best men have quitted the ser- 1 vice in disgust. The late Government had not the i courage to declare openly that they contemplated the , death of the Volunteer foroe, much less the courage to despatch it at once. Instead of doing this, they 1 resorted to a process of starving to death. The result 1 of all this is that the force is in an ineffective, dis- ] organised, disaffected and disheartened condition, and pio'ialilv no Defence Minister desiring to bring ; about substantial reform in the Volunteer system ] could desire to have the force in a more advanced 1 ag« of ripeness for his purpose. We are sure that ; ■ Volunteers throughout the colony will be well pleased W with the change of Ministry, because the presence in ' Y the Government of such enthusiastic admirers of the 1 Volunteer system as Messrs. Ballance, Buckley, Cad- ] man, and Ward, all of whom have had active expe- . rience of volunteering, is a guarantee that they will receive a reasonable amount of encouragement. < Moreover, the remaining members of the new Minis- ] try, .Messrs. M'Kenzie, Reeves, and Seddon, are uncompromising opponents of a permanent paid army, os not suited to the peculiar circumstances of the ' colony, and beyond its power to support. With a < Ministry so constituted, the military horseleeches are j likely to have a bad time, but that is matter for small concern, for the downfall of these pensioners will be to the advantage of the Volunteers and of the colony i generally.