COLONIAL DEFENCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11430, 21 July 1900, Page 3

COLONIAL DEFENCES.

STATEMENT BY THE PREMIER. A GREAT SCHEME OUTLINED. PROPOSED RESERVE FORCE. ENCOURAGEMENT OP VOLUNTEERING. EQUIPMENT OF CADET CORPS. ASSISTANCE TO RIFLE CLUBS. [BY telegraph.—special correspondent.] Wellington, Friday. In the House of Representatives last night, Mr. Seddon, Premier and Minister for Defence, made an important statement respecting harbour defences, colonial defence forces, Imperial reserves, cadet corps, rifle cluus, and other matters connected with the defence of the colony. He said :—Hon. members will, I hope, agree with me that it is consistent with one's duty to the Empire and to the colony, and not out of place, to give attention at this juncture to the all important subject of our defences, and if possible to evolve a means of perfecting, extending, and strengthening the same, both for internal and external purposes. iWARATIONS FOR EMERGENCIES. The equipping and sending of our contingents and the lessons taught bv tin 1 war in South Africa must not be ignored. We n.ust not be blind to the altered conditions that have arisen during the last few months, and which at present may appear trifling, but which in years to come may be a source of anxiety to' the colony and the Empire. There are also eventualities that may arise in connection with the adjustment of affairs in China, and taking the outlook as a whole it is prudent for us to complete our harbour defences, increase and fully equip our volunteer corps, give military training to our youths, encourage rifle clubs, and in addition create a reserve force equal for any emergency.

' WANT OP CAPITAL. The chief drawback lias been the finding of the capital required for the completion of our harbour defences, the equipment of the defence forces, the purchase of great and small arms and the munitions of war. Important as these are, still the opening up and reading of our land, the construction of railways, and the development of our industries, have been such a tax upon our resources that expenditure in regard to harbour def.-.'.ces, defence forces, ride clubs, and cadet corps has had perforce to be curtailed.

WAYS AND MEANS. I, therefore, with much reason, urge that it would be of advantage to the Mother Country and to the colonies if the moneys required for harbour defences and for arming the defence forces were raised by the Imperial authorities, and advanced to the colonies, which should pay interest thereon at the rate of three per cent, per annum. In the calculation of this interest the difference between the rate at which the colony could raise the moneys and the rate at which it is obtained by the Imperial authorities would form a sinking fund to pay off the principal within a reasonable time. COLONIAL RESERVE FORCE.

The proposal that tie Imperial authorities should find the capital is warranted by the fact that the imperfect defences of the colonies would be remedied. There would also be the direct advantages to the Imperial authorities and the Empire in having a reserve force established ready for anv contingency that might arise, and in having the most modern guns and small arms in the colonies, to the use of which our forces would be trained, and be available whenever required. There are in New Zealand thousands of men capable of hearing arms, many of them trained and good shots, yet we have in the colony rifles onlv for one fourth of their number. Again there is a large number of men of the native race who are well capable of bearing arms.

ENROLMENT OF MAORIS. In the past we hare had a taste of the fighting qualities of the Maoris, both of those against and those with us ; in fact, had it not been for the ".friendlies " the troubles would not have ended so speedily or successfully as they did. All now, lam happy to say, are desirous of upholding the mana of our Gracious Sovereign, and were pouri (sorrowful) at not being allowed to go with our sons in the contingents to South Africa. The time has long since arrived when we may with confidence trust those of the native race who enrol themselves in our volunteer corps and accept them to form part of the Imperial reserve force suggested in this memorandum. MORE RIFLES WANTED. I consider that, in addition to the .303 rifles now in the colony, tn provide the volunteer corps in the South Island, the new corps enrolled and to be enrolled, the men in the Imperial reserve, and to have a reasonable stock in reserve, 30,000 magazine rifles are required. The cost of same, with freight, etc., added, would be about £120,000. In the past many companies of volunteers and rifle clubs have offered their services, which have been refused on account of the capital required for arms and equipments not being available. This also applies specially to the want of field batteries, and the completion and full equipment of harbour defences.

CLASSIFICATION OF FORCES. The defence forces of the colony should he divided into the following classes, viz. : (a) Permanent artillery for harbour defences ; (11) ordinary volunteer forces ; (n) Imperial and colonial reserves forces ; (d) rifle club ; and (k) cadet corps. THE VOLUNTEER FORCE.

When the present Commander of the Forces took office our volunteers numbered about 4200. The number of officers and men now enrolled totals 11.500. There are in addition some 90 corps offering their services, which, if accepted, would bring our total volunteer force up to over 18,000 officers and men. Most, of the corps now offering their services are mounted. We take it for granted that approximately one-half would he mounted, and the other half infantry. The present capitation grant for infantry is £2 10s and for mounted corps £310s. The total amount required for capitation would, therefore, be £5-1.000 per annum. To this must be added for equipment* water bottles, haversacks, baridoliers, etc., £1 per head, which would bring the total cost up to £72.000. To have our volunteers efficient increased training in camn is essential, and additional payment may be found advisable. 1 estimate this at £8000. bringing the total required to £80,000. We have now an up-to-date field battery, and other batteries have been ordered. The cost of these, if manned by volunteers, would be at least £1000 each, hut if manned bv permanent men and horses £12.000 would he required,

SHOOTING RANGES. To make our volunteers efficient in shooting ranges are necessary, but with the increasing population of our centres, these are difficult to get. In the past there has been great oversight in this respect, and we find ourselves in the position at the present time of having no suitable range available for oui volunteers in the large centres of population. To make the necessary provision now would entail a cpst of £20.000, and when this is done (and the sooner it is done the better), a law should be passed that no person acquiring properties adjacent to, or in the vicinty of, these ranges, should Lave any claim against the colony. Rifle ranges are as essential to our welfare as our railways are, and they should be protected and maintained for all time.

AN IMPERIAL RESERVE. In respect to the formation of an Imperial reserve, the following shall apply. It should be open to all officers and men belonging to the ordinary volunteer corps, to become efficient in both services, and to enlist for, say, three years, in the reserve forces. Officers and men so enlisted should receive a fixed annual sum on being certificated as efficient, and be required to go into camp at stated periods for, say, four weeks in each year, drills and camping as a volunteer to count as part of said four weeks, When in camp they should receivo a sura amounting to at least half that now

E'ven under the militia regulations. The iperial Government should find the capital required to purchase field batteries, rifles, and equipments of the force, the colonies paying a sum equal to one-half the interest on first cost. In respect to all forces when on service outside the colony, the Imperial Government should provide horses (when in the colony men to provide their own horses), the payment of capitation and the payment of the forces when in camp in the colony, or on service outside the colony, within prescribed limits, to be adjusted between the Imperial authorities and the colonial Governments, on a population or other equitable basis. The reserve forces should be open for service within territorial limits, to be agreed upon between the Imperial and the colonial Governments. The pay of the officers and men when on service outside the colonies should not be less than that which is being paid to the Fifth Contingent at present serving in South Africa.

STRENGTH AND COST OF RESERVE. Estimating the strength of our volunteer corps at 18,000 men, we may reasonably expect that 8000 of their number will enrol in the Imperial reserve. This number, together with 2000 men of the Maori race, who would join the reserve, would bring the number up to 10,000 men. Putting the capitation on those efficient at £5 per capita, the annual cost would be £50,000, to which must be added the pay during the time the men are in camp, say, about £50,000 more. Therefore, there would be in this colony 10,000 men available at an annual cost of £100,000. Taking it for granted, that in Idee proportion to the population, the same number of men would enrol in the Australian colonies and Tasmania, and estimating the population of Australia and Tasmania at 3.500,000, the proportion would be 43,750 men. added to the 10,000 in this colony. This would produce a reserve force of 53,750 men, or, in round numbers, an Imperial rcseive of 50,000 men, at an annual cost of £1,000,000. The captious critic may look upon this scheme as chimerical, and I had some doubts myself, when, on May 11 last, in a memorandum to His Excellency the Governor, I first outlined the scheme, but since then Major-General French has expressed the conviction that a force could be formed on the lines indicated, and seeing that the drilling and training in camp of the volunteers would count for that required by the reserve, there is little doubt that the number estimated by me would be reached.

RIFLE CLUBS. In respect to the formation of rifle clubs, a club should consist of not less than 20, or more than 40 members, and in localities where volunteer corps have been formed, only ex-volunteers who have had not less than three years' service should be enrolled. In localities where there are no volunteer corps, rifle clubs may enrol members who have not had volunteer service. It is necessary that members of rifle clubs should, where practicable, attend a prescribed number of drills and parades in the course of the year, the instruction being in respect to handling arms and firing exercise, the Government to supply rifles and ammunition to enrolled members of rifle clubs at cost price. After one year's enrolment members of rifle clubs shall be tested at target practice, and on being able to make the minimum number of marks at the piescribed ranges, 01, having attended'the prescribed number of drills and parades, they shall be entitled to receive a certificate as being efficient. , For tho first year every enrolled member of a rifle club shall receive a free grant of 50 rounds of ammunition, and thereafter to every efficient member of a rifle club there shall be allowed a free grant of 100 rounds of ammunition, to be used at matches or at practice. Members of riflo clubs also to have a, concession in the shape of free railway passes when attending rifle-shooting competitions.

CADET CORPS. As has been stated by me in reply to questions, cadet corps should be established. They should be under the control of tho Education Boards and the Education Department. A light rifle, similar to that used in tho colony of Victoria, should be provided for the use of. say, 20 of the older boys in each school. The. total number of boys who are in the sixth standard, or have passed it, is, say, 7500, and tho cost of giving onefourth of them rifles would be £3750. In addition to the school cadet corps there are a number of youths in the colony who are not old enough to join the volunteer corps, and the formation of cadet corps and the enrolment of these youths would be of material advantage. The number likely to be enrolled is estimated at 5000. The cost of rifles and equipment, estimated at £3 each, would make a total of £15,000. Anyone who has given this subject any consideration must readily admit that if you commence to train the boys in the school, after leaving school they enrol in the ordinary cadet corps, and when they come of age they will enrol in the volunteer corps. You take them from the school and keep them under military training until they attain the volunteer age. At the present time the lads, from the time they attain the age at which they could be enrolled in the volunteer corps, have their ardour damped as well as their liking for drill, and this has been the means of preventing them from enrolling in the volunteer forces of the colony. No such thing as conscription is at all necesary in this colony, and I am satisfied that if the suggestion now made should be given effect to, we should have, in the course of a few years, fully 20,000 volunteers equipped and a complete naval branch of the naval reserves. NAVAL VOLUNTEERS. In respect to the naval branch of the Imperial and colonial reserve forees, arrangements should bo made for the drilling of our naval volunteers on a certain number of days in each year on the cruisers belonging to the Australasian squadron, these cruisers to be at the several ports in the colonies at times fixed for the purpose. Tliere are many of the merchant steamers coming to the colony which could be converted into cruisers. At present the officers and engineers on those steamers cannot qualify for the naval reserve. If they were allowed to have short periods of service on the cruisers, when both steamers and cruisers were in port, these officers and engineers would in time qualify for the naval reserve. There should be naval guns, equipment, and munitions of war for thoso colonial steamers convertible into cruisers, to be left at a depot within the colony, to be approved by the Imperial authorities, not necesarily at a port, yet safe from seizure and within easy reach.

SrRENGTHENINQ THE AUSTRALIAN

SQUADRON,

Owing to the altered conditions it is necessary that the Australasian squadron should be strengthened, by raising the class of vessels and increasing the number of cruisers, the colonics to pay the increased cost on the basis of the present agreement. Several of the cruisers now in the Australasian waters, not being up-to-date, and not belonging to the squadron, should be withdrawn and replaced by a better and more useful class of cruisers.

MILITARY CONFERENCE. With the development* that have taken place in South Africa the difficulties nut with by the Australasian colonies in fiin.lling, equipping, and despatching contingents for service outside the colonies point to the fact that a conference of Imperial officers, commanders of the forces, and Defence Ministers, would be of great service in working out a scheme such as is here proposed, and should Field-Marshal Lord Roberts be able to accept the invitation to visit the colonies, lie should be invited to preside at such conference. Failing this the Imperial i'mliorities should be asked to send one of the British Generals, who has taken part in the South African campaign, to preside at such conference. VIEWS OF AN EXPERT. A HUGE EXPENDITURE. [BIT TELEGRAPH. -SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Friday. After the Premier's memorandum on defence matters was rend to the House tonight, I had a brief interview with Mr. Jas. Allen, who, from his intimate connection v. .tli volunteering, is a very competent authority on such matters. Mr. Allen said that, as be was on the Defence Committee which the Premier was setting up, he would not criticise any of the details of the scheme in the meantime. He, however, thought it was quite clear that the scheme involved a huge expenditure. No doubt the scheme might, on closer examination, prove to be efficient, but it was a question whether the colony could afford to give up its roads and bridges and railways to enter into such an expensive scheme of defence. It would seem as if the Premier was taking advantage of this period of prosperity to go in for a

huge expenditure on all sorts of things which lie might not bo able to keep up. As to the Imperial reserve corps suggested, he doubted if Mr. Seddon would succeed in enrolling 10,000 men as an Imperial reserve on the conditions mentioned. CAPTAIN RUSSELL INTERVIEWED. Captain Russell, interviewed on Mr. Seddon's defence scheme, said the first thing that struck him was that the Minister for Defence had provided no real organisation, at all events, he had given no hint of it. He seemed to think that the aggregation of men was all that was needed. For instance, when he talked about permanent artillery, he did not appear to appreciate the fact that if we went in for field artillery we must have trained gunr ers. It is an impossibility to create trained artillerymen offhand. Further, there is no suggestion of any division of the colony into regimental districts. The great expense of the scheme will also be a very big drain on the colony. As to the Imperial reserve corps, Captain Russell thought it would very likely prove a failure. He did not believe there were 10,000 men who would place themselves at the disposal of the Imperial Government to he sent, for instance, to the Yang-tse-Kiang, or anywhere else out of the colony. Parents would no doubt say to their sons, " By all means go in for volunteering. It will do you good, and it is a good thing to be ready to fight in defence of your country;" but they would not care to have their sons turned into ordinary Tommy Atkinses, to fight all over the world. Besides, these men would thus .e debarred from joining the volunteer force. Like Mr. Allen, Captain Russell did not care to criticise the -scheme in detail at the present juncture. THE DEFENCE COMMITTEE. In connection with this question, the Premier has given notice of his intention to move that a Select Committee be appointed, consisting of 12 members, to whom shall be referred all matters respecting defence, the committee to consist of Messrs. J. Allen Carncross, Hardy, McNab, Napier, Palmer, Rhodes, Captain Russell, Major Steward, Symcs, Willis, and the mover.

MR. MASSEY'S OPINION. Mr, Money, interviewed about Mr. Seddon's scheme, said the country was likely to cry out about the expense. The people were, he said, far more in need of the money for roads and railways. It would, he said, bo much wiser to spend the money on the Main Trunk railway, even if it were only to facilitate the movement of troops. For instance, he said, at present it would be impossible to send troops quickly up to Auckland without a railway, and if that part of the island were suddenly attacked it would be in quite an isolated position, simply for want of a means of speedy communication with other parts of the colony. The result would be disastrous not only for Auckland, but for the whole colony, for it would enable an enemy to get a footing in New Zealand.