THE RIFLE RANGE AGAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7974, 14 June 1887, Page 6

THE RIFLE RANGE AGAIN.

TO THK EDITOR. Sir,—Your colamn of Local Gossip on Saturday contains) a sentence pointing to a ttate of things wbioh calls for public attention at the pre»ent crisis. "The Government," it ie said, " will not take the renponaihility of ejecting volunteers from the Mount Eden Kange." That ie to eay, the Government have allowed themselves to be frightened out of doing th*t which they have acknowledged ought to be done, and had expressed their intention of doing. A tetter from the Defence Offioe, dated 10th Febrnary, ISS7, contains these words : " I have the honour to inform you that the Government are in treaty for a now range, and it is hoped that the complaint will thus be remedied." On April 14th of the present year, Sir George Whitmore wrote as follows : " The question of anew rifle range for Auckland has been for some months recognieed as one of urgency. On the one hand such a range is absolutely required, on the other the present site is becoming daily more and more uneafe, as residences are being rapidly built in the vicinity. ... I have again and more urgently repeated my instructions to find a proper range, and I trust it may this time result in a good one being found." In face of this the volunteers, in a manner, which if there be any meaning in words was certainly contrary to regulation*, told the Commander-in-Chief that their judgment was better than his, and therefore hie instructions would not be carried out. Where ia the wisdom of maintaining at great cost a body of armed men who defy the authorities and refuse to be bound by any law but their own? In case of attack from outsiders, they would in the nature of things be utterly useless, so that the only persons against whom they oan turn their weapons are thoae already in the country, their fellow-countrymen. Impatient of discipline, rebellious towards their superior*, given to babyish quarrels among themselves, so full of self-glorifioation as to regard it as a alight when not met by a band at a town which they visit to shoot for prizes, bullyijig a weak Government into drawing back' from a fixed and avowed intention ; are these the kind of men into whose hands it is wise to put weapons of offence ? There is yet another aspect of the question. In all public bodies in this country, local Boards aud Parliament alike, the question of the members eeems very generally to be, not how to do what is just and right, but how to keep their seats. The fear of heing turned out is acknowledged to be a sufficient reason for or against a measure. Should not the "honest man " be one who values his honour more than his seat, and whom no consideration on earth can turn aside from the etraight path of justice? A fewsuoh men presenting a firm front against all eelf-aeekers might bring to New Zealand the salvation she so greatly needs. At preient it ie both pitiable and ridiculous to hear tho outcry from one quarter after another—" We have not got just what we wanted, our member has failed to get much public money, or money's worth for us; won't we make it unpleasant for him presently I" Public spirit, reaching beyond its own neighbourhood, seems almost unknown in this land.—l am, etc., Mary Stk*dman Aldis, Mount Eden, June 13, 1887.