DEFENCE GEAR MAYBE STORED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19134, 29 July 1930, Page 6

DEFENCE GEAR MAYBE STORED.

CHECKING HAS BEEN PUT INTO OPERATION

In view of the suspension c*t military training, it is likely that all stores, equipment and uniforms will bo returned to the ordnance depots. So far as is known, no instructions have been issued on this point as yet, but during the past v/eelc the checking of stores has been carried out all over New Zealand. A vast amount of work has to be done in this direction, and some time must elapse before it can be completed. It is believed that orders will eventually be issued for all stores to be centralised at the ordnance depots. In the case of the South Island, this is Burnham. The storing of New Zealand’s weapons of defence will not be the work of a few weeks, or even months. It may run into years. It will also involve considerable expenditure. Some' thousands of rifles will have to be , taken to pieces, and each part thorI oughly cleaned and overhauled before being put down in grease. Bayonets also will have to be cleaned and greased. The web equipment of infantry units will be sorted and stored, and the gear and equipment, which are part and parcel of the various other forms of military service, will not be transferred to the ordnance department without a great deal of labour, time, or trouble. It will be a huge task. In the meantime the ranks of the permanent staff, whose job it was to discipline territorials in the various arts of soldiering, are soldiering on among themselves; and may dp so until they fade away.