"A WASTE OF MONEY."

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13946, 29 April 1909, Page 2

"A WASTE OF MONEY."

_tR ALLEN AND VpLUNSE_BINCt.

' - Per Press Association. MILTON, April 28. • At Milton to-night, Mr. J. Allen, . M.P., addressed a meeting of , his constituents on the subject of defence. In ' the course of his addreaa he said that though he had hung on as a volunteer officer year after year 'in the bone that. : things would better themselves, ajm ' that the yonng men of the country -' would realise what patriotism really was, he was now forced into the position that the whole thing was on wrong lines, -and was a great waste of money. He added that in the Otago district., there are supposed\so be 4730 officers, non-commissioned officers and men, and yet at the last Easter encampment the attendance was only 1414, including 307. qadets. Mr. Allen advocates umvera»l training where everybody shall give something at any rate of his time and of his ability to the service of his country, Nothing, he says, is further from his mind than the bugbear of conscription. What he urges is' a system that has been tried elsewhere, and. which has proved itself to a very J*rg& eattenr W , success. He does not believe that thi* national training should end at twentyone years. He would begin with the cadets and carry on the training con- , secutively to 21, and from that time onward men sho#ild he brought out annually for a certain amount of training, so that in the course* of time thdre ought to be such a force ready to take • arms that even the most jpawea^V na,tion approximate to us would hesitate ' to come into conflict with us. ' Me could not shirk this responsibility, and we could not - make preparations for it in a day. The Australians, he contended, were going on right tines generally in this matier of defence, ' and they were backed .up by expert opinion as expressed at the 1 Colonial, Conference, ••_•"';, r Mr, Allen was thanked for his address, and the meeting carried a resolution in favour of. universal training, iboth for military and naval defence.