DISCOURAGED VOLUNTEERS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7632, 26 January 1903, Page 2

DISCOURAGED VOLUNTEERS.

If anything were wanting in the way of endorsement of the remarks in our last issue in reference to the manner in which the Government, while professing great regard for their interests, discourages the volunteers of this colony, a poragraph in Saturday evening's Post supplies the mission. It reads very funnily alongside the announcement by the Premier a day or two before that "the cole ground upon which the Government took charge of the Rifle Association Avas to use it as a means of encouraging the volunteer movement" ; and " he must have them to know that the Government regarded the volunteer movement as of paramount importance." The Post's paragraph states: —" Volunteering in Wellington is not what it was a few years ago. Many officers and men who used to take a keen interest in their work have lost heart through the vexatious rules and regulations imposed of late by the Defence Department, and we are assured by one of the oldest volunteers in the district that it is probable some of the corps will soon be much below the minimum strength. The volunteer year will end on the 28th prox., and quite a large number of men have decided to drop out of the force on that date. The Defence Department is apparently still determined to charge corps for repairs to rifles that have been damaged through the use of defective ammunition issued to the local volunteers. The corps consider that they are not to blame for the present condition of the weapons, and iit is certain that at least two of the companies (the City Rifles and the Guards) will disband if the threatened deductions from their capitation allowance are made."