LEGION OF FRONTIERSMEN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15595, 11 August 1921, Page 8

LEGION OF FRONTIERSMEN.

TROOP TO HI-: FORMED AT I'ATt'TAHT. :A large number ~f members of "t ' Squadron, Legi,,,, tjJ - Frontiersmen, headed by their tftf'., Captain W. Brechin, journeyed to Patutabi last night in order to organise a troop in that township. 'J he meeting was held in (tie Patutabi hall, and was largely attended. Lieut. ('. White presided.' Captain Brechin gave an outline of the aims and objects of the Legion, and made il quite dear that the Legion did not solicit enlistment in ils ranks. The Legion was open to those win, wished to join. "In the fellowship of the Empire Lodge, which is the Legion of Frontiersmen," said Lieut. White, in Ihe course of his address, "there is the spirit that coming down through the ages has taken men'of British birth in to all the uncivilised portions of the earth. In all Ihe history of the world, there has been no migratory drill lo compare with this vast movement. As the pioneers aged ihey sell led and colonised, their sons grew up aiid moved on again until to-day, where is there any part, of the 'habitable earth where men of British breed are not found ? "Justice.—These men carried will) them British justice and the love of fair play and fair dealing. They planted the British ting and taught the savage races that where thai emblem was. I here also was a jnsl law between man and 'man. Amongst. I heir camps Hie qualities that counted were those, of upright manhood: The frontier lias stern laws, and these Frontiersmen learned them as no other race on earth has learned (hem. So ihey were (he wardens of Ihe flag, the pioneers, and builders of Empire, but they had no other organisation than their love, of their home land; ho other leader (ban their race instinct, yet Ihey were members shaped and moulded, ami tested and proved, of a great Km-' pirc Lodge. -Theirs was the free 'masonry of Hie Frontier. Ihe brother* hood of the trail, and lo give such men as these some tangible organisation. Ihe Legion of Frontiersmen was formed, and now the Legion lodges an 1 found all ■over the world, I hat* vast Empire (hat was built and won' by British Frontiers--men, Hie pioneers of mighty- history. "Laws. —The laws of Hie Legion are the laws of the frontier aamp ; nothing lias been altered; the qualities flint make for upright, fearless manhood are (he lest today as they'were a hundred years ago. In (he frontier camp a man's word has (o be his bond, his dealing has (o bo honest; so (he unwritten laws ol the frontier are the unwritten laws of the Legion, and the first degree Of the Empire. Lodge. "Eligibles.— All those men who live or have lived, in those "places, aiid in those cicumslances thai have trained and seasoned (hem in Ihe crafts of the pioneer, all those men to whom the seas, the forests, the mountains, the rivers, the hills, and the swamps are as an open book, tin- explorers, prospectors, packers, freighters, sailors, surveyors, guides, soldiers, cowboys, musterers, pearlers, bushmen, hunters, mounted police, ranchers, all know the. brotherhood of the trail. -.■'•'

"Purpose.—What is the purpose of the Legion of Frontiersmen primarily? It is the defence of the Empire that- the Frontiersmen of the British breed have built up, and secondly, if is -the assembling in social gathering of Frontiersmen, whom the frontier has made brothers. The training of the frontier is-such that no army training school can hope to emulate. ,Vou may teach a man drill in a. few months; it takes the hard experiences of daily life for years, U/idei frontier' conditions, to make a man a Frontiersman, ;md the frontier teaches something the drill ground never will. It taught ils sons to rush for Gallipoli, to hurry forth from field and'Torest at fho call of the war trumpet. Was ever conscription needed for Frontiersmen';; Look at. the Legion's great and shining record for the answer. "Classification. —Frontiersmen of the Legion are not professional soldiers, they ai'e men who can spring to attention at the call, already trained by the frontier as- scouls, intelligence agents,, guides, signallers, pioneers skilled in' construction and demolition in the making or destruction of bridges and railways, in bush era it, and in operating as irregular troops or mobile commands.

"Leaders'.—Like the wolves, I hey lind their own leaders; the supreme law of the Frontiersman on the frontier is sell-, defence; the supremo law of the Legion is defence of the Umpire 1 . He who wants to start trouble when Front iresmen are around, has but to meddle with the. British (lag. The Legion badge is the. flag encircled and charged on it is the in-; soription, 'God Guard Thee,' which that great Frontierstrtnii, • Gordon, had engraved on hifering in Chinese characters; and that the desert tribesmen believed to be ti talisman. There are widespread plots .to-day against- the flag, and war is not, over, the same jealous hatred of the poorer of Britain that gave birth to the German plan for A world war, is alive and active to-day, and we owe it to the flag, ourselves, and to all the traditions of the frontier, to see that our gallant, comrades who fell in battle 'died hot hi vain,"

• After the, meeting supper was handed found, this -being followed by a social evening. A large' number of men filled in forms of application,'-and shortly a troop will he formed at Patnlahi.