OUR VOLUNTEERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 8

OUR VOLUNTEERS.

The Obago Husaara, numbering 60' of all ranks, paraded on Wednesday nigh b, 24th, for the half-yearly inspection of arms by Colonel Webb ' (commanding district), who expressed himself highly satisfied at the olean state of the arms, &c. He said it was very gratifying to all concerned to know th»b a large master could always , be depended upon from the .Hussars, as, their,. duties as cavalry required that,; in caie- of. need,, they would be; among the .first called' on to take the -field.* Shooting - prizes were ., presented, .'to", 'the best shots of the troop. for the yean -The champion bait was won by' Sergeant Allan. A handsome challenge cap (presented to ,tbe tlOOp by Mr James Hislop, who was one of the original sergeants when the troop .'started 14 years ago) called for keen competition, and fell to Quartermaster-sergeant Burnside and Sergeant Pram on & tie. The possession of this trophy for the year re« mains to be -fired off* at ■an early date, Single match prizes were also won by Sergeants Allan, Orbell, and Frain, and Troopers Oantrell, . Orbell,V Ellisou, acd Miller. These matches were fired with Martini carbines lately issued, and the scores, which vary from 75 to 87 for 21 ehofcs, show the carbines to be much superior to the old ones. The half-yearly ehpotiug match between the town, Taieri, and Waikouaiti troops (eight menVside, 21 ■hots) < was won by Waikouaiti with a soore of 515 points. At a meeting held afterwards a strdng committee was appointed to arrange sports for annual training, in next; October. Sergeant* major Park, whose uniform was recently destroyed by fire, was presented by the combined troops with a new uniform as a.mark of sympathy and appreciation of past services. The nomination of Sergeant Crosby Morris to fill the vacancy for office of lieutenant, vice Mr 'George Sievwright, met with unanimous approval. Oppoitunity was taken to congrata* late Sargeon-major Goughtrey on his'promotion to be surgeon-major on the, medfcal staff of Netr Zealand. >•_ - , •,"-,; , t ,

The old stage coach London hostelry; fh# Elephant and Castle, was in its time famous as a public resort. Its glories are cow gone, under; the new conditions of life in London, . and. the 'Savoy, thVßrietol, the Charing Crbjg, and other, palatial hotels replete with luxury and comfort ' are very .different from the White Lions, Red. Bulls, andCriterions of the early years of thepre* sent century. Let us picture the bar parlour of the old Elephant and Castle, say, after the battle of Waterloo; where the genius of the Duke of. Wellington overthrew, by the aid of British bayonets and the Prussians under Bluche'r, the great conquerer Napoleon Bonaparte. Burly . red-faced farmers from the midlands, the dapper little keen wbeat-bnyer from Mark Lane, the ' wholesale carcase butcher, the dealer in hunters and roadsters and others of that ilk, all in . harmony threshing out the talk of the day over/ their mugs of ale, v; hen in comes |he old stage coachman after a long" journey! . Not being gifted with much conversational powers and with a consciousness of inferiority' in this respect, he takes up the newspaper as an excuse for silence notwithstanding the difficulty that he was ttnable to read. In those days the mail coach, was pictured in an illustration, and the paper beicg held upside down, it is easy to understand the horror of the old coachman, who exclaimed, "Here's a big accident, a coaoh capsized," and the roar of the delighted oom* pany when they learned the nature ofthab capsize. How different is convivial life now to those old times. Instead of the long churchwarden pipes we hare the beautiful and fragrant Vanity Fair Cigarette, the perfection of quality and the soother of worried humanity,