COUNTED OUT

Otago Witness, Issue 3335, 13 February 1918, Page 24

COUNTED OUT

LONG NIGHT PARADES. ARTILLERYMEN PROTEST. The disapproval of members 'of the New Zealand Garrison Artillery to long night parades was shown at Auckland on Monday evening, when some 300 members of the artillery hooted and counted out Colonel Smith, the officer commanding the Auckland district. The men had. been at Fort Cautley receiving instruction on the guns, and had returned to the city (says the Star), after having been on parade for close on three hours and a-half. Major Coles was in charge of the parade —a colonel's parade—which is held once monthly, and there were several other officers present, in addition to Colonel Smith. The men had fallen in, and were being addressed by the colonel. He suggested that they were not as efficient as they might be, through lack of drilling, and pointed out that on active service the men were very often on duty for 24 hours at a stretch without a spell. The men resented these remarks, and gave vent to their feelings, hooting first, then counting out, and en dismissal, away and rushing round the corner into Queen street, leaving tho officers standing in a group. The trouble, according to the men has been brewing for some time past. They complain that, whereas the infantry detachments in the Auckland district parad'e for only cne hoiir and a-half per night weeklv, the Garrison Artillery are compelled to parade for three hours. As against this, the officers contend that the parade commences from the time when instruction starts at the forts On the guns, and not from when the men fall in. -• •, Several of the young men, as a result of the late hour of dismissal., did not arrive at their homes, at St. Helier[s Bay, Takapuna, and Onehunga, until midniarht. In the early part of the evening Major Coles announced that the next parade should commence at the old hour, 6.50 p.m., instead of 7.15, as at present. This action helped to bring the matter to a culminating point./