RAW RECRUITS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 848, 9 September 1864, Page 6

RAW RECRUITS.

{To the Editor of the Daily Times.)

Sir—ln your issue of this day appears a letter from a correspondent signing himself "An Old Volunteer, 1' ami to which I trust you will afford me a little of your valuable space to reply to. He complains of the hardship which he and other trained men would have to endure in joining the Militia by being associated with raw jecruits- I have heard of •• Heaven born statesmen' but never milimmen. I should like to know how he learnt hid drill. Did it come intuitively ? Or did he joi • an already formed company or regiment 1 If the latter," which is more probable, how did his comrades like his accession in the character of a rpcruit Or pe:haps as bis norn deplume implies, he might have been the very first volunteer ana taught the-Horse Guards the drill; His objections are puerile in the extreme. It is not for him to say whether he Knows his drill but for his oificers; and if well drilled he may depend his feelings will not be hurt by being drilled with raw recruits. He goes on to say that exemption can be obtained by joining the Volunteer force, and takes occasion to aim a most unmerited insult at the officers of that force On the 2-1-th May last he states, the evolutions performed excited the ridicule and derision of all spectators, but makes not the slightest allowance for the difficulties the Volunteers labored under. In the first place, from the recent formation of the companies, the greater proportion of them were nearly raw recruits; and in the second, had the ground been keut properly, as elsewhere, there would have been no confusion. I might, in conclusion, inform your correspondent thitt every officer has to undergo a much more searching examination than merely proving a company ere he is gazetted. —lam, &c, Another uld Volunteer and aw Officer.