The New Zealand Volunteers.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 7162, 13 February 1901, Page 2

The New Zealand Volunteers.

Inti-rviewed as lo lfn opinion of the Ni-w Z-aland mi'iiary iurces, or such hs he hud sc.-n oi them, Colonel Wyndham, the Couuminder, said : ■• What has particularly struck us here is your mounted rill', s They ride well, ihoy are keen, a'.t-vt- iuei\and thdir hoi-Res are L'rst-class, Wfll bred, asm up ti wesght-carrying : in fact, mounted litles art; whas mounted infantry onghs ;o be. The weak point of the force scr ins to be the oflicers. This is no peculiar to Ne-v Zealand or anywhere else, lc is the same with all volunteer officer.-.. It takes so much longer to mukean oth'cer what he should be than it does to make a. private a soldier. What I would like to i.upress upon the Government is the. mcessity of training officers; that is, give them more thorough training, cither by lmviug Im., periil instructors or by sending iiome seU cted officers to go through a course of drill, musketry and mancwuvres, both in England and on the continent.

" I really think it would be worth the expense. i Tou want adjutants to come out. h-nv. and travel round th* country and thoroughly teach the ofiicers. A good deal can be learned out of the book, but not everything. Tbo men we smv were very intelligent, and of such good class that ihey would oasily 1.-am anything that was put before them, I am not advocating a standing army by any means. You don't want that. You want a defence force, a force that will have for its motto, 'Defence, not defiance.' "