MILITARY TRAINING

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16801, 3 April 1919, Page 9

MILITARY TRAINING

FARMERS' DIFFERENT OPINIONS. At the meeting of the, Levels Ooumtv Council yesterday, a discussion took Place on a" Teso.ution passed by the .Ashburton County Council,, sugiUng i* i ™ ;lltar y training should ho abolished. A discussion tlo.ok place-on a,resolu--jon passed, by .the, Ashburton CountCouncil, stiggestiiife-ihat military ira-.n-mg should;;hß abolished.,. - Mr Kefr- ; thought'the Levels Council should support tKeruAshhurton.Gfoiiiiitysi Council in this matter. ' '--^:«e; Mr Garrick said no; the young fellows required traming. Mr McKeown: Military training is the best thing that ever happened them. Mr Orbell said he was strongly in : favour of military ..training, and he thought they should oppose the Ashburton resolution. Mr Kerr said it was a waste of time and money, and it was time that this young producing country did away with militarism. It had been proved that tho training was " valueless, as -thc-se young fellows who had been trkcri: ltttif camp for the, who .had had no previous training, did betler than those who had previously been trained. AVhat New 'was. *n&t. an army, but a local ',jiavy, with "sjtpjj marines, and an efficient air for<s6.'- & Mr Orbell said that -the traininS'df* the young fellows it better men of them, apart alto&?&ie£ from the military aspect., , , _ ' ££'</' 1% Air Kerr said that if military\jfcfaiijip ing were needed for p«M poses, there must Y>e with our educational (system. ' . '4jsp< Mr Abbott said that military "training -was' rill right, but the trouble was that the Department sent out ineffici--pnt instructors. He knew of .a 1 easewhere an instructor had been unable.to. direst h's men through a gate and he had to tell them to fall out to gi> through the gate, and to fall in again when they got through. Mr Cain spoke m support of military I training. 1 Mr Garrick said that if England and France had been prepared for the war it would not have dragged on, nearly so long as it did, and-them., have been ,a big saving in ' life^aJttd" : money; \ ..-'-,- ■' Mr Kerr said that the training created a feeling of livalry > and distrust, and it should be discouraged „ c'V. Mr McKeown spoke favour of the training. We Had' a 'fiNtfU country, he said, ' arid', if "was • wofctjnJ' defending. . v _- '». \ ., Mr Garrick said that it .selfis'b--ness which made sfofaie farmers oppose the training. And iha.%' was.'the'-f.rotible, with the Ashburton opponents. . '- \ , On the motion y>t/ Messrs Qarridf'' and McKeown it wraijaecided ; to oppose the Ashburton*TwS>lution,"' Messrs Kerr and Abbott d'ssenting. A £IO,OOO LOAN. The Council discussed for some timeV in committee, the proposal to raise a loan for road improvement, and ultimately decided unanimously to go in for a loan of £IO.OOO. Tho loan ,will be for 20 years, au 5 per cent, interest, with 3 per cent, sinking fund. The chairman explained that the money would 'oe expended in the Otipua, Claremont, and Point ridings, that it will only bs a charge on those Tilings in which it is spent,! and thnt the interest and sinking fund will only mean an increase in the rate of ?,«h of a penny in the £l. Accounth were rassed for nnd the meeting- closed.'