Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Quarter of a Century.] FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1904 THE EASTER ENCAMPMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7683, 5 February 1904, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Quarter of a Century.] FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1904 THE EASTER ENCAMPMENT.

Wβ have been told that there is to be a big Eastor Encampment in the Wellington Provincial District, and that some three thousand men, cavalry, artillery and infantry, will assemble at some convenient centre and make a spectacular display upon a somewhat considerable scale. We have been also urged to stir Masterton up to claim the honour of the Encampment. This town is said to be the more convenient place for the Easter parade, and all that it would have to do would bo to provide a commodious area, like the racecourse, for the military meeting, and to furnish straw enough for three thousand beds. This would be but a small sprat to catch so big a mackerel, but do we want the mackerel ?

it is the opinion of many settlers that too much money is spent on military parades. There is no objection to any rational expenditure upon arms or upon teaching men how to use them; but there is a growing feeling that more money is expended upon shows than upon attaining that efficiency which was so characteristic of the Boer in the late war. Our Defence Department is a chaos of of unintelligent management and of profuse expenditure. The Easter Eαcampment is usually a heavy item in the annual Bill, and very many of those who attend it learn little that is worth knowing.

There is also another grave evil in connection with encampments, and that is the demoralising canteen. It is customary to provide for the expenses of an encampment by opening a grog shop, which is called a canteen. There are supposed to be proper regulations for preventing the abuse of the canteen system —but, as a matter of fact;, they are ineffective. Young lads, who under ordinary circumstances, do not taste alcoholic liquor once in a year, get tipsy when an encampment comes along, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that their unhappy condition is due to libations from the canteen. Officially this sort of thing is usually denied, but virtually an encampment with a canteen

is a curse to a district where it is held, and we shall not be at all sorry if Masterton misses the honour of being the centre of the coming big Easter Encampment. In an ordinary licensed house, there are well-known checks which prevent abuse, but a canteen is an unlicensed grog shop, free from the control of the police and subject only to military regulations of an exceedingly elastic character. As long as the canteen is a feature of volunteer encampments, we shall oppose them. In a community like this they have a distinctly vicious tendency, and do more harm than good to the Volunteer movement. Of course, in adopting the Canteen system we may be only aping an Imperial system —but this is no excuse. We asked a trooper, who went through a campaign in South Africa, " How about the canteens there ?" He replied, " There were none, and we were better without them. Now and again a hogshead of beer might be given to a commanding officer, and he would allow one drink to each man. I got about four drinks only during the campaign. A canteen teaches young fellows to drink, and is bad for them." If our boys " at the front " could go through a campaign without liquor, they surely are able to stand an Easter parade without stimulants. Had there been a canteen system in South Africa, such as we see in New Zealand, it is doubtful whether we should have seen any of our boys back again in New Zealand.