OUR DEFENDERS

Observer, Volume XI, Issue 707, 16 July 1892, Page 7

OUR DEFENDERS

By Nordenfeldt,

More strife in the Auckland Navals. Colonel Fox is shortly expected in Auckland to inspect the local forces. The Garrison Band have now fclie opportunity of securing the orderly room just vacated by the Boyal Irish. The Mount Eden Range has been dosed by Colonel Goring in consequence of prisoners being engaged about butts. Our Southern friends evidently intend sending a shooting team to Australia, for they have started canvassing, and the difficult task of selecting suitable representatives. On Saturday last No. 2 target; on the Bine Bange was disabled by a bullet passing right through the iron. Sorely the Government might supply new ones and thus save the Bange Committee the expense of continually patching up the rotten target at present in use. Lord Wolseley recently said lie thought an invasion of England was an impossible operation. If such a thing should ever take place, he believed it would be attempted by a comparatively small army, for a great army could never be conveyed across the Channel. He estimated the greatest force that could attempt to invade England at from 150,000 to 200,000 men, and even they could not all come together. The principal concern of Englishmen was to reader their country proof against the invasion. Eor that purpose he believed they only required a small army ; and if he were asked to estimate what that army should be, remembering that they had a large force of militia, volunteers and yeomanry, he would say it should consist, in round numbers, of 120,000 men, with a firstclass army reserve ofjjßo,ooo or 90,000 men. It is only by means of the short service system that they were able to secure an army reserve. It numbered at present nearly 70,000 men, and by the end of this year it would consist of about 80,000 men. He had no hesitation in saying that these men would bear comparison with -the soldiers of any nation in the world. If they introduced compulsory service, and required the same proportion of men, relative to the population, as they did in France and Germany, they would get from the population of London and its suburbs alone the whole army necessary for defensive purposes.

A leap year ball will be held in the Si George's Hall, Newton, on Tuesday, lSth July, which promises to be an unqualified success. The following ladies are taking a prominent part in the management :— Mesdames McGinness, and Robinson, -Misses Barnes (2), Mettam, McMillan and Warner. Miss J. M. Barnes is acting Honorary Treasurer and Secretary. Gentlemen desirous of joining the Auckland Liedertafel are requested to Fend in their names on or before ihe 19th. iusc. to Mr E. H. Barber, Victoria Arcade, Mr Arthur 'lowsey is the conductor of the society, which is a sufficient guarantee of its ultimate success. We have personally inspected a number of costly and beautiful prizes to be drawn for in the Ponsonby Art Union, on the 29th. inst., and we can safeiy recommend our friends to try their luck. Tickets can be purchased at the reasonable rate of 1/. each, from Mr J. H. Parish Karangahape Road., The Art Union is in aid of the Church of the fciacred Heart. Mr Chaeles Haines is editing the Wairarapa Daily Tim/is, Masierton, during the absence of Mr Joseph Peyton, the proprietor, in London. Mr Kaines, who was lormerly in the railway department, Wellington, is to be congratulated on his success as a journalist, the Times, under his ,able editorial management, being now one of the best written country papers in the colony. :