THE DEFENCE FORCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2923, 23 March 1910, Page 14

THE DEFENCE FORCES.

By Sentry.

Extracts from the latest issue of the Gazette :_Lieutenant A F. Boberte, B Battery, promoted to be ««*«*; Jgg. tenant and Quartermaster W. M G. Turn bull Ist Regiment Otago Mounted Bines, promoted to be captain; resignation of Putenant Cumming" Wakatipu Mounted titles, accepted. . Aiktrioi is The Territorial Force in each distuct is I be organised into brigades regiments «d battalions as far as local conditwne Vdmit, as follows:-One.mounted »flebugade of two or. three regiments headquarters, one mounted signalling company, one mounted supply column, ™?,™ un £f field ambulance, one field artillery biigade and ammunition column, Ingineer company, one infantry brigade of three or four battalions and headquarters, one infantry signalling company, one infantry supply column (mixed), one held ambulance. . .... . . . , , In view of the impression that is abroad that the forts at Otago and Lyttelton Heads arc to be dismantled the omission of the Garrison Artillery from the above organisation may be regarded as sigmncant. The infantry signalling company will probably be the Cycle and Signalling Corps, and the Mounted Signalling Corps will have to be organised. Possibly the signallers in the Otago Hussars may be Utilised to form a nucleus of the latter. In the case of the Garrison Artillery, •who put in 22 hours in camp in connection with the Kitchener- inspection and received no pay because they had not completed a Jul! day of 24 hours, headquarters has decided to break through the rigidity of the instruction that no payment should be made for broken, time, and the Navals will receive one day's pay. The decision is but reasonable, and there is little doub. it will suggest things to those Volunteers who put in nearly two complete days and received payment for one day only.; The proposed football match at Easter ■between teams representing Otago and Christehurch Non-commissioned Officers Clubs will not be held, the enthusiasm of the northern men having apparently cooled off. , . . , 1 The winning of. a shooting prize by a competitor who failed to strike the target must be regarded as unique. Such was the experience of Lieutenant-colonel Stonehom's daughter in the Ladies' Match fired in conjunction with the Present v. ExHighland Rifles on Satiurday. Four of the ladies who competed missed the target with their five shots. They then drew lots for the third prize, with the result as stated. In presenting the prize, Lieu-tei.ant-colonel Stoneham said his daughter had contrived to do in one match what he had failed to do in 25 years of Volunteering—namely, to win a prize for shooting without striking the target. Field-marshal Lord Kitchener has perpetrated a sacrilege upon " God's own country." Instead of regarding New Zealand as a special country mainly occupied in giving leads to older nations, he has chosen to regard it merely as much of a muchness with Australia, and after preparing a brand new report for the Commonwealth has in effect written across it " ditto New •Zealand—on one-fourth scale." The shock over, the plain fact that the recommendations are sound in their application to New •Zealand may percolate. Touching upon just one or two points in connection with the Kitchener recommendations, one of the most 'vital is the necessity for the forces io u.ndergo annually at least a week of continuous training. It is a reiteration of the orinciple already affirmed by the New Zealand administration, and it is most vital in that it orovides the most serious difficulty in the administering of the new scheme. That it is recognised as a most serious question is evinced _ in the announcement that in the meantime the continuous training camps are not compulsory, but may be replaced with the familiar morning and evening parades in camp over the same period. These camp at which morning and evening parades are held the men pursuing their ordinary vocations during the day, have a certain value, but from a practical point of view the utmost training that may be crammed into them is altogether inadequate, and could not be compared with the practical value to be derived by men who spend the whole of six days in field training. It is obvious that no scheme of training can be effective unless it includes provision for periods of continuous training in held manoeuvres. There is a refreshing expansiveness about the Field-marshal's recommendations for payments 'to the military. The scale oi remuneration he proposes for staff officers is, whilst not luxurious, ample enough to attract men of the best stamp to the military profession, whilst the suggested liberal scale of payments to citizen soldiers during periods of training is calculated to encourage the feeling that the Territorial is valued by his country, and to compensate in some reasonable measure for loss of revenue he sustains through giving his time to military training. The proposal that candidates entering the Australian militarv. college should pay annually fees amounting to £BO would, however, have the effect of closing the door to many eligible vouths, and this would be distinctly regrettable, and foreign to the intention of Field-marshal Kitchener, who stresses the ooint that in the selection of officers there should bo no class distinction. The Engineers are wondering they come in in the Kitchener -n-o-

gramme. The establishments of infantry battalions, mounted rifles regiments, and batteries and divisions of artillery are mentioned, but not a word as. to Engineers. _ It was but to be expected that our provision that training should be compulsory only up to the age of 21 would be altogether out of line with the Field-Marshal's ideas on the subject. His recommendations provide for training, including continuous camps, up to the age of 25. This age limit is much more rational, but apparently there is no indication that this recommendation is likely to be adopted in connection with our scheme. It seems doubtful, indeed, whether any of the Field-Marshal's recommendations will affect the forces for sometime to come. Great changes were anticipated as the outcome of his visit, but they are evidently to be introduced gradually. The calling of a conference of officers commanding districts with headquarters seemed to portend some immediate changes, and the outcome was eagerly awaited by local Volunteers. All that seems to have been done, however, was to go through the act in order to become familiar with it, and possibly to secure a uniform interpretation of its clauses. A unique opportunity for striking out boldly for necessary reforms was provided by the visit of the great soldier. The country was prepared for important changes in defence organisation as the outcome of his recommendations. The neglecting «bf the opportune moment will mean that when the reforms are asked for, perhaps a year hence, the same comfortable torpidity that prevailed until recently will have enveloped the country, and all manner of obstacles will be placed in the way of the' adoption of reforms. Meantime the Dominion has been furnished from' Wellington, per Press Association, with a glowing anticipation of the prospects of the defence scheme under the new act. It is the right thing to promulgate the most hopeful view possible, but there is no excuse for somcof the extravagant claims that are made. For example, we are told that there .are 21,000 Volunteers or Territorials in th© Dominion. As a matter of fact, when we exclude Cadets and rifle clubs, wo have a force, including noncombatants/ of about 13,000. There is no doubt that as soon as lads are brought face to face with the alternatives of Territorials or general training section there will be considerable accessions to tKe ranks of the Territorials, but to suggest that the whole of the 30,000 highly-trained men required "can be obtained by training the physically fit males between the ages of 17 borders upon the ridiculous, especially when it is remembered that youths in the general training section are merely to be trained in squads, and, unless they join the Territorials, will have practically no opportunity to understand combined movements or even ordinary company organisation and discipline. The members of this general training . section will certainly be greatly benefited bv trainn" - . hnt to ssv t,Ho+ they will qualify as " highly-trained" is a rosecoloured fiction. This point is emphasised again by Field-Marshal Kitchener, who, on the eve of his departure, has urged that the age limit be raised to 25. Nor is it correct to claim that financially the Territorials will be upon a much improved status. The capitation grants have been substantially increased, and payment is to be allowed for continuous training camos: but, on the other hand, payment for davlisrht pardes has been stopped, which will discount about 75 per cent, of the increase of capitation. whilst it is well known that companies will use the option of holding evening and morning parade camps instead of continuous camps, in which case no payment is made. Payments for camps cannot, in any case, benefit battalion funds as claimed, for the oayments are for the individual, and not for the battalion. TRENTHAM, 1910. By Magazine. Dear "Sentry."—l have pleasure in complying with your request to give a few notes on the jubilee meeting of the Dominion Rifle Association meeting recently held at Trentham. As is already known, the entries constituted a record, close on 590 entries b€>ir!:r received; but as a considerable number did not put in an appearance I think the number who actually took part in the meeting would he nearer 570. The presence of the 19 Australian marksmen was undoubtedly a "draw," and great interest was taken in their doings. When the men fell in at 8 o'clock on Friday morning it was very close, and there was a slight drizzling rain, but before noon the sun broke through, and from then until the following Thursday the weather, from a spectator's point of view, was beautifully fine —very warm, with generally light "breezes to temper the sun's rays. But from the cwoutdoratmuchphYA rays. But from a competitor's prVnt i-.t view " tricky Trentham" was at its trickiest. Each day the wind seemed to be coming from all points of the compass at the same time, and as a result competitors »vere nonplussed. One, of the crack Australian shots who had just registered 25 at 500 yards informed the writer that in all his experience he had never struck the like, and admitted that the wind had completely bi, ffled him. Needless to state, there were competitors who have previously had a tijSte of Trentham who 'had like experif .ices to the above. Of course there were patches of geed weather, and those who were fortunate •enough to be down in them generally ij.anaged to plank on very good scores.

For instance, a w r ell-known Southland crack registered a 10-shot possible, but shooting at th© same range a little later in the day he could only manage with his 10 shots to register a fair seven-shot score. .Notwithstanding the trickiness of the wind the shooting was very good, and the grand total of 441 in the five Belt matches registered by Captain W. S. King, of Limvocd, Rifles, Christehurch, and Captain James Ross, of Wellington, (better known as "Carbine Ross," he having won the Carbine Belt outright in 1888) was only 11 poinds behind that registered by Captain King in. 1909, when the weather conditions were very much batter than, on the present occasion. Leading the "King's Fifty" for two years in succession is a psrformanc© of which Captain King might well be proud. He is probably th© finest shot the Dominion has produced, but I think he lacks "nerve" at the critical moment. So full an account of the final shoot for th© Belt has already been published that :t is not necessary at this stage for me to write further on it, but in passing 1 should like to mention that the. action of the authorities in keeping the men bo longon the mound before shooting was commenced was severely commented upon by competitors and spectators alike. The "fifty" fell in at about 2 p.m. They were squadded, targets were drawn for, and the competitors marched to th© Seddon range by 2.30 p.m., but it was about 3.15 before a shot was fired. The men were lying on the mound ready to fire for nearly threequarters of an hour, and if some of them were nervous before shooting commenced your readers can imagine what some of them were like when " All clear" wa<3 given. The delay was caused by waiting for the arrival of the Ministerial party and other visitors from Wellington. I think I, am vo ' cm g the opinion of competitors when I state that the executive would do well to either make train arrangements so that the visitors would arrive on the range earlier, or "fall in" the fifty at a later hour. Comment on the range at the longdelay was very severe. When the fifty lay down the light was.very dull; in fact, it was commencing to rain. In weather such as this it is a well-known rule that you must lower your elevation, but in the above instance exactly the opposite was necessary as is proved by the fact that 32 out Of the 50 missed the target with their sighting shots. This is a conundrum which perhaps some of your readers may answer. There was great controversy on the range as to which is the superior—the ordinary rack barrel or the match barrel, but opinions seemed to be pretty evenly divided on the question. Personally I beheve that a good rack barrel is equal if not superior to a match barrel. The aperture sight was used by a majority of the competitors, and from appearances it would seem that the straight bar and sliding V's will shortly be things of the past It is interesting to note that the well-known Australian marksman, who patented tho shifting backsight, fired throughout the meeting with a B S A aperture sight. In all my experience I have never seen men shooting in such rain as en the Thursday when the Gordon Highlanders and Empire matches between New South Wales ana New Zealand and the United Service match (Volunteers v. rifle clubs) were fired. It speaks volumes for th© enthusiasm of those competitors who braved the elements and watched the various stages of these matches It simply poured the whole afternoon, and when a man rose from the . mound one would have thought that a bucket of water had been thrown over him —the water ran from his clothes in streams. , # With regard to the service matches there , is not the slightest doubt that a very large majority of the competitors would like to see these matches eliminated from the programme. They are very well in their way, but the fact remains that, with two exceptions, the matches are very unpopular, and if it was not for the fact that it is I compulsory to enter and fire in them, the entries would be very few. " A waste of good ammunition" is what one heard all over the -range. The popular matches are the Running Man and the Chattie match. If the matches are continued—i and there is no doubt that they will be--I would suggest to the authorities that after each individual has fired his score should be signalled from the trench to the firing point, and thus avoid a good deal of uneasiness which is felt amongst competitors that the scores and names get mixed, and that each man is not credited with his own. Great things were expected from the Australian visitors, more especially as one of them, two days before "the meeting, registered 101 at 800, 900, and 1000 yards, but on the whole they were disappointing. " Trickv Trentham" was evidently too much for some of them. A great many improvements have been l carried out on the range since last meeting. '■ An adequate water supply has been installed, and there is now little possibility j of a recurrence of the epidemic which visited the camp last year. In this connection it might be mentioned that when the tanks were token down it was found that there was a deposit, of from 18in to 2ft of filthy matter on the bottom of each tank. There ar© now 37 Ralsten targets available for long-range shooting, 12 having been fitted up on the Somerville range prior to this meeting. I understand that it is the. intention of the executive to have the whole of this range fitted up before the 1911 meeting, and with 50 long-range targets available the programme should be got i through much quicker. These improve-

mcnts will necessitate all buildings beingshifted some distance nearer the railway station. When they are at it the authorities should take into consideration the advisability of enlarging the dining room and generally improve matters in connection with the conimissiariat department. One matter commented upon was the fact that although there was close on 700 men under canvas there was no resident medical officer in camp. It is true that a . well-known Weilington medico attended the camp at lunch hour daily; but surely the presence of such a large number of men in camp requires the attendance of a permanent doctor, and it is to be hoped the executive will arrange accordingly in future. I trust that readers of thes© few remarks will derive as groat a pleasure from them as it has given me to write them.