TRAINING OF HOME GUARD

Southland Times, Issue 24548, 24 September 1941, Page 7

TRAINING OF HOME GUARD

COURSE IN DEMOLITION WORK Between 40 and 50 men from the Eastern District of the No. 12 (Invercargill) Home Guard area are to visit Invercargill next week-end for a course of instruction in demolition work. The officer in charge of the demolition company, Mr D. L. Grant, and his assistants are busily engaged in preparing the necessary material. This entails a considerable amount of work and it is not unusual for them to put in two evenings a week in addition to their week-end work. Instruction in demolition work has already been given to members of the Home Guard from Oamaru, Dunedin and Central Otago. Appreciation of the instruction given is expressed in a letter received by Lieutenant-Colonel W. Bell, group director of No. 12 area, from Lieutenant-Colonel J. F. Tonkin, group director of the Home Guard at Oamaru. Lieutenant Colonel Tonkin writes: “I have had glowing accounts of the demolition course at Invercargill by those who attended from here. In fact, one platoon commander has written me a four-page letter praising the course and the hospitality.” MEETING FOR SIGNALLERS Captain S. Gordon Anderson, officer in charge of signals for the Home Guard in New Zealand, will arrive in Invercargill next Monday. A conference to be held in the supper room at the Town Hall that evening will be of particular interest to signallers, and all signal officers and men of Home Guard units are invited to attend. Any improvised signalling equipment, such as lamps, should be brought to the meeting for exhibition and discussion. It is hoped that as a result of the conference many problems connected with communications will be straightened out. Some time ago the Red Cross Society stored a certain amount of its equipment at Home Guard headquarters, Invercargill, to be used by the Home Guard if the necessity arose. Yesterday Lieutenant-Colonel Bell received a letter from the secretary of the Southland branch of the society stating that further equipment would be available for members of the Home Guard should any emergency arise.