VOLUNTEER AND SERVICE JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10970, 26 January 1899, Page 3

VOLUNTEER AND SERVICE JOTTINGS.

[BT sentinel.] The Ponsonby Navals go into camp of instruction about the 3rd of February.

The annual competitions under the auspices of the Auckland Rifle Association have been fixed for March 17.

Colonel Pole Penton, commanding the New Zealand Forces, arrived in town last Saturday, and will remain over the Government inspection of Saturday next.

Volunteer enthusiasts will be interested to learn that Colour-Sergeant Bradford, of Ohinemuri No. 1, has been appointed ser-geant-major of the Xo. 2 Battalion.

Class-firing is going on very well at the Mount Eden Rifle Range, and our volunteers deserve a word of praise for the manner in which they are sticking to their work.

Local volunteer companies have at last received a supply of the oil to bo used in the cleaning of the now Martini-Enfield weapon, and there will now bo no excuse for dirty rifles.

Tho Government inspection of arms and accoutrements takes place on Saturday afternoon, after which the daylight parade, for which personal payment of 2s 6d per man is made, will follow.

Bugler Whisker's appointment as buglersergeant of tho Auckland Infantry Battalion No. 1 has been confirmed. No doubt more attention will now bo given to the instruction of tho less experienced buglers of the battalion.

The study of chiropody is being added to the curriculum of the Royal Army Medical Corps, and it is hoped that corns, ingrowing toe-nails, and such like impediments to longdistanco marcliing will shortly be eliminated from the army.

An additional instructor in Sergeant Shaw has been added to tho Auckland district at last. The sergeant is said to have a knowledge of both infantry and cavalry drill, and was for some twelve years associated with tho sth Lancers.

It is generally understood in Paeroa that Sergeant Hobbs and Lance-Corporal Avers of the Ohineinuri Rifles, No. 1 Company, intend competing at the Rifle Association championship matches, to bo held at Wanganui shortly.

The Kihikihi contingent of tho Waikato Mounted Rifles have been busy lately (writes our correspondent) preparing their shooting range, and are now engaged firing the regulation number of rounds, under the supervision of Lieutenant Walker.

Colonel Penton and Lieutenant-Colonel Banks wero visitors at the Rifle Range last Saturday, when class-firing was going oil by the Auckland and l'onsonby Navals, and somo of the rifle corps. A few points were noticed and remarked upon by them, but apparently their visit was quite satisfactory.

It has been rumoured that, the Sargood Cup competition would not Ira fired this year, but such is not the ease, as tho competition will bo fired under tho usual conditions. The shooting will not, however, count for tho cup, owing to the mixed arms at present in use among the volunteer forces of the colony.

The Akarana Riflo Club will hold an open day's shooting at the Avondale range on Monday, when two first and two second class matches and a ladies' match will lie fired off. The latlor event is expected to attract considerable attention at the hands of the fair sex, several of whom would show some of our volunteers how to handle a rifle.

The Auckland Navals have a crew practising for the regatta, and although they only started training this week they are doing good work, and under the persuasive powers of Chief Petty-Officer Moore, they should givo a good account of themselves next Monday. It is a pity that there are only two entries for this race, which is usually one of the best events of thy day.

As far .is I can learn, the Victoria Rifles are the only company that have bought a bronze medal or tin X.'/,. Rifle Association meeting. As the medal en-M> £2, and (no winner (in company competition) is entitled to free entrance to membership of the association and to compete in the bronze medal match al the gathering, it is a wonder that other of our local companies have not purchased medals. !

It has been decided to hold a competitive examination, open to all " non-coms.' of the No 1 Battalion, for the position of sergeantmajor. Serjeant Turtou has been appointed provost-sergeant, bin Major Murray has not yet decided as tc the appointment of a quar-termaster-sergeant. When this latter vacancy is filled and the competitive examination has been hold the infantry battalion staff will then bo complete.

The Auckland Navals last Saturday fired for a medal and several small cash prizes, combining prize competition with their classtiring. The medal is one presented bj a former P. 0., -Mr. Clark, and is hold for six months. Acliiig-Pctty-Oflicor Wait was the winner on this occasion, with a score of 48, at 200 yds and 500 yds, and will be presented with the medal at tho first parade of the company at tho Drill-shed, probably Wednesday week.

In the naval engagement which took place between the American and Spanish fleets at Santiago, no less than 6000 shots wero fired by the former, out of which 122 hits were recoaled. The six-pounder guns were responsible for 79 hits, tho four-inch guns for 11, the five-inch for 15, the. eight-inch for 15, and the 12-inch with two only. The supporters of light quick-firing guns a<; opposed to those of heavier calibre naturally point somewhat jubilantly to the above results.

Mr. Abbott, who has occupied the position of junior subaltern of the No. 2 A ictoria Rifles since tho formation of the company, was oil Tuesday evening last unanimously elected captain (unopposed) vice Mr. Chatfield, resigned. The company appear to have nu.do a good selection, as Mr. Abbott is a most enthusiastic volunteer and a capable drill. Colour-sergeant Shaw and Sergeant Wilding stood for the vacancy of junior subaltern, the latter being elected on tho company vote.

On Saturday last the second competition for Mr. Buchanan's modal was proceeded with by the Alcarana Rifle Club at the Avondale range, but only two of the throe ranges were completed, these being the 300 and 500 yards. At this stage Mr. K. (J. Cox was leading with the gou<s score of 62 of a possible 70-30 being put on at 300 and 32 at 500 with \sr. li Buchanan second, three points bolow this score. The competition will, in all probability, be completed on Saturday week, when the 700 yds range will be fired.

There has been a good deal of talk aboutthe supposed delay on the part of the Ponsonby Xavak to elect a now commanding officer vice Lieutenant-Commander Graham, resigned. I may say that the delay was due to certain necessary arrangements in connection with the internal working of the company, and these only having been completed a few days back the delay could not be prevented. Captain Miller, who previously was in command of the corps, has been again prevailed upon to take charge, and will co so before the company goes into camp.

The reports of the various Customs officers who were directed to ascertain how many seamen were Villing to join the proposed Colonial Naval Reserve show that nearly all tho men approached declined to join unless a guarantee was given that during their six months' training oil board a man-of-war they would bo paid as much as they would receive if they were employed in the mercantile marine There is reason to believe that if the Admiralty will offer fairly reasonable wages, no difficulty will be found in obtaining the services of the majority of the seamen trading out of New Zealand ports.

The Onchunga Rifle Volunteers were inspected by Captain-Adjutant Grant on Tuesday evening. The company was commanded by Captain Mcintosh. After inspection the company was put through certain movements by the captain, Lieutenant Ward, and the sergeants. The adjutant expressed himself pleased with the progress the company hid made since his last visit. The company is getting on fairly well with the class firing, but as there #re a number who have not completed they must bear in mind that all oltfs firing must he completed within the next fortnight, otherwise they will not earn their capitation. The band is making good pic - gress, and holds an excursion to '.he Huia on the 30th iußt.

Tho following from a recent number of tho Army and Navy Gazette will probably bo of interest to colonial readers —A French officer, Lieutenant Ferral f of tho 59th Regiment of tho Lino, has just completed at Odessa a course of instruction in all the Russian words of command and in Russian regimental drill and evolutions. Lieutenant Fermi's tuition was confined to infantry matters, but a number of French officers. including representatives of all branches of the service, and probably an officer from every line regiment in France, will, it is stated, he sent to Russia for the double purpose of acquiring a colloquial knowledge of Russian and of making themselves au eourant wi'h Russian military tactics.

i An English exchange has the following reI marks upon the new service equipments, | which closely approximate those in use by the ■New Zealand volunteers:— adoption of I brown leather legging;., and the promised ini traduction of the Sam-Browne equipment for | officers, will bo hailed by all who have had - experience of campaigning, or the safer, but ; eqtally grimy, toils of manoeuvres and routej marches. "Brown is the hue of sport:" it is also the hue for war and weather, or for i any occasion where there is much dirt and little leisure for spit and polish." An imj mediate advantage will be the abolition of ' that pied appearance which has disfigured | tho legs of a marching battalion since the I ci mmencemeul of the experiment in 1634.

| Volunteers, especially those who are yet recruits, should recollect that they are bound to salute their officers, even though they are themselves in mufti. Ail incident at the range last Saturday was very noticeable, when a group of young men who wero sitting alongside the range took no notice whatevei of ! Colonel Penton and Lieutenant-Colonel Banks passing them. There should bo no excuse for this, as the men, being on the range for class-firing, were certainly op military duty, although not in uniform, and tho fact of Lieutenant-Colonel Banks being in uniform should have reminded them of what I was due. The reproof and instruction from I heir non-commissioned officer was cerlanly necessary. Anothei point 1 noticed on this occasion was that Colonel ronton ordered the breach of all rifles or carbines to be kept open, except when actually firing. This applied to all arms on tho range, and officers or non-commissioned officers in charge of firing parties would do well to observe this precaution.

Cool-headed Britons, says a recent num- 1 her of the Broad Arrow, should not excite themselves unnecessarily over the wonderful I yarns that reach us from across the Channel about the rapidity of fire of the French quickfiring guns. A service journal (Army and Navy Gazette), usually well publishes an account of how a major of French ai tillery lately exhibited and described various improvements ho has effected in the new i|nick-firer. This officer's invention, it states, will enable an average of 25 shots a rninuto to lie fired, and that in the hands of experts no fower than 33 rounds have been attained! The shell contains 500 bullets. We are asked to believe that over 30 rounds of presumably shrapnel, accurately fused, and the latter properly set, and the gun of course laid automatically or otherwise on tho object, have I been got off in a minute. We can only conceive that this wonderful invention consists of a sort of "shoot," which, coming from the source ot supply of ammunition, pours shell after shell into the breech of the gun as fast as they can bo fired from tho muzzle, the rate dlaimed being ono round every t|ivo seconds. So far as wo are concerned, all our J practical gunners are of opinion that a quickfiring field gun which, under service condi- [ tions, will honestly admit of five rounds of a I large capacity shrapnel, with fuse accurately set and gin well laid, being fired in a minute will lie good enough for them against tho Rrobdignagiau performances of the French I gull. We remember hearing what the " Mitiailicur " was to do in tho Franco-! war, and we also know that the expected achievement of this weapon did not come off.

The question of discipline and how to enforce it in the volunteer service is one which is constantly brought under our notice (says the writer of volunteer notes in the Canterbury Times). It is indeed a pressing subject, for without discipline any military body is worse than useless. We cannot help thinking that in the case of the volunteers the want of power to enforce discipline, and impose penalties fcr its broach, lies unequally, for where that power is weakest it should be the strongest. Take, first, the power given to commanding officers over the non-commis-sioned officers and men; there it is strongest, for at all times, whether under the Army Act or not. the volunteer—not volunteer officer— be dismissed the service for any offence which his commanding officer alone considers to be adequate, and, moreover, be proI ceeded against at civil law to recover the | capitation grants which that very dismissal precludes him from earning. Take, secondly, the discipline enforceable on the officer. This, it is to be feared, is more or less a vanishing quantity. Suppose, for instance, that an officer fails to see the necessity of being ruled, turns sulky, and will not attend parades, neglects to look after his companies or halfcompany. or even writes covert offensive letters to his superiors. These offences appear t ) be entirely overlooked by the volunteer regulations. Such difficulties could not, of course, lie possible in a Regular regimont or even in the militia during training. The only panacea is to bring the necessity of discipline home to the volunteer officer by placing him, like his elder militia brother, always under the Army Act. The present condition of things is absurd, and it is not fair to an established institution that it should be lowered by the absence of any properly-recog-nised oodo by which discipline can be enforced.

A grnpegrower of New York (L. J. Farmer)' thus writes about the Wortlen grape:—Of some 25 varieties of grapes I which 1 have on my grounds, but two or three have ever paid me the first cost of the vines, and the best of these is the Worden. It is a black grape, larger than the Concord, more juicy and not so pulpy. The skin is not thick and it does not ship as well as the Concord. The Worden is unquestionably the best variety for home use, and to grow by farmers that want a home supply, that I have ever seen. It ripens about 10 days before the Concord, and is of better flavour. While the Concord does better high upon the trellis and when it runs over trees and buildings, the Worden tends to grow in a more dwarfish shape and never gets out so far. It begins to produce fruit soon after being planted and will stand more neglect in trimming than any ; other grape I know, and bears good crops. But the size of the bunches and the quality of the berries are very much improved by proper trimming. Few farmers understand how to trim a grapevine properly, and iliry i are about as liable to injure it as to imp.-uve iit by trimming. For this reason the >VorI den is the one for them. No one wi'l re-

gret planting a Worden grapevine.

j A correspondent of American Garde liig describes the beautiful Chinese shrub I Weigcla rosea, as pre-eminent among !:CU'Vi producing plants. It should be every year cut back freely after Uowering .0 obtain J. cut most blossom. Under these obtain the most blossom. Under these •.■'icuinI stances a succession of flowers for ;e'";il : months will be obtained. Some interesti in" items about bees and this plant aie ,' given. The tubes of the dowel's ale so I deep that the humble bee cannot reach its I nectar. But the humble bee knows ! a thing or two. When it finds that its honey tube or sucker is not long enough to reach the portion of the flower where the nectar lies it leaves the stamen end of the flower alone, and. climbing over its lobes on the top of the blossom it makes a slit near the calyx, and from this point of advantage it robs the flower of its nectar. The humble bees begin early in the morning on this flower, and keep busy at work all day until about five in the evening, when they leave the plant alone for the next days work. All through the day there are thousands of humble bees at work. Now the singular part comes. Working with the humble bees all day until nearly dark the j honey bees are found in their thousands, j They also cannot reach the nectar. Now 1 how does the honey bee find out that the j slit is on the top of the tube, and that the honey is at the slit ? Without the help of ! the humble bee the honey bee could not ' obtain any honey from these flowers, for the honey bee's tongue is not strong enough to pierce the tube and make the slit, and the tube is too narrow at the base of the stamens to allow this bee to reach the nectar. The Weigelas do well in almost any part of Victoria; they are easily propagated by cuttings taken either from the old wood "in the autumn or from the young growth in the spring. They readily suffer from drought. They are closely allied to the honeysuckle family. 100 dozen of ladies' hats will be cleared at 5d and Is. These goods cost from 3s to h id. Underclothing greatly reduced.—D.B.O., [Sty Hall. The Hbbaid and Accexand Weekly News Exhibition Number now issued. Thousands of pounds worth of drapery, ilothing, furniture, and carpets to be sacriiced at the City Hall, prior to removing; -piece Genoa volevt suites selling at four •trims.—D.B.C. Sale now on»