High School Barracks Week

Northland Age, Volume XVIII, Issue 41, 25 February 1949, Page 1

High School Barracks Week

High Standard of Company

Throughout this week, pupils of the Kaitaia District High School have forgotten the existence of text-books, test tubes and classrooms, whilst the male poriion of the pupils have participated in the military training of their cadet corps. Each day at OHIO hours, there ha: been a company parade, at which th( following officers and senior N.C.O.‘ take part in the conduct of paradt ground marshalling and general procedure : Officer Commanding the Compaay is Mr. E. Rive, and the second-in-com-mand is Mr. G. Johnson. Mr. L. Pointon is a platoon officer. W. 0.11 D. Hart of the local Army Office is in charge of operations and has assisting him W. 0.11 R. D. Smith of the Permanent Staff, stationed at Dargaville, and Corporal W. McDonald, als 0 of the Permanent Staff. These latter two also act as platoon commanders. Being 110 strong, this High School company represents almost a full cimpany of an infantry battalion. There are four platoons, No. 1 Platoon being composed of those in training as potential N.C.O.’s, No. 2 Platoon being boys in their second year of military training, whilst Nos. 3 and 4 Platoons are composed of lads who are receiving their introduction into the intricacies of “On Parade'’ and “right and left dress.” Senior N.C.O.’s amongst the lads themselves are : Company Sergeant Major D. Yelavich, No. 1 Platoon Sergeant B. Thompson, No. 2 Cpl. Erceg, No. 3 Cpl. N. Berghan and No. 4 Cpl. R. Masters. Everyone seems keen to be on parade, and there is no voice raised against the trying conditions under which the lads are parading. Thendiscipline seems to be more than exemplary now that Sergeant-Major Hart has knocked off the rough edges, and their parade ground bearing speaks highly of th e attention they

appear to be paying to their instructors. It is shown in their work just how i much instruction and enthusiasm can | be instilled in only five days of instruction. The lads are keen to be at the job, and their labours have :?jt gone unrewarded, for the Army sees to it that they have cordial at i the morning break, and on Wednesday, the Kaitaia Dairy Company saw to it also that their potential defend- ! ers were supplied with an ice cream each. T’lis latter also went to the girls at he school who are doing a course of Physical Education, Arts, etc., while their m,en folk are dum- j maging through the mysteries of aperture sights, swivel slings and butt iraps. The. boys have been on the rifle ! range and it is reported that one min-

or infringement of the stringent rules governing that place, only occurred. This is punishable by the culprit being debarred from attendance at the next time his platoon has a shoot. Smartness on parade has received i more than its share of attention, and | for the boy who has scored the most ! points during th e whole of the week, I a trophy has been donated by W O. II Hart. It is believed that this trophy for the best turned-out boy was in actual fact unnecessary, as they all seem to take a pride in their uniform to a degree that bu.tons and boots are shining, and those who were unfortunate enough to have dusty boots on the morning that th e AGE representa ive was present, were busily engaged before parade, doing their best to remove all traces of such. It was decided that a team of men from each platoon would compete in an inter-platoon shooting match, and the lads throughout were looking forward to this with eagerness. It being so early in the year, the lads have a considerable amount yet to learn, but it can be confidently expected that towards the end of the school year these chaps will be able to hold their own with any of the big secondary school cadet corps throughout New Zealand.