OCCASIONAL NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3153, 8 September 1892, Page 2

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

Mosr of the spectator.-!, I think, wore well pleated with Mm turn-nut Tilt: nmi genei al appear.ince of VOI.rXTKKUS. the tw.i emm'-iv nf v 'tlont'-'trd — thn T". Aw.itiititti KifW and !lin Ila ..ill, .n Light Inf«t;(fv — iiMn*ct«*il bv (J■ ■ 1'• 11■ 1 I' l.ft rin.i-il-y. Til.- Mi'"" w. i-i'.y, in ill" rinks, :.ii't ( >- I■■ii' I 1' recognised and r ona: Ued I, '>>" the i-t.-id,' man iter iii which seveial eNeicises wrr* gone through, must ha* !• put in » dial of time at. their drill. The inspecting odicer had tin fault, to find with the mil. ;ini) file, mid spoke iipi r.iviiiKly I.f the physique o! the met). So f■ f so good. We have the material; pnM»-riy equipi ed, properly instructed and eronerly encouraged, tile ci'tzen soldiery of New Zealand should bo second to none of a similar class in the world.

Now one would naturally think tliut, to compensate (he men for HOW THEY are the loss of time and KNCOUItAGKI). inconvenience they are at tunes put to in attending drills, that there must bo countervailing advantages or privileges of a substantial kind accruing to thein as volunters. Being curious, 1 made enquiries, and w;ei informed that, apart from the capitation allowance of thirty shillings per annum paid f a- -not to—each ellieient volunteer, they receive nothing. From the capitation grant, the working expenses of the corps are paid, and assistance given to individual members to provide themselves with uniforms. The privilege of providing themselves with a uniform is the only one they a'cquire on becoming volunteers, and it is one they are. not likely to be deprived of. That volunteers do not receive the encouragement they should do KOW THIS I.KCIS- is, I believe, generally I.ATIVK. council admitted, and the fact THINK THKY that a committee of the SHOULD UK KN- Legislative Council was couitAUKn. appointed this sessi"ti to enquire into the best means of doing something in this direction, mav be taken as an earnest of this. The report of the committee is bafora nip, and the iv.sult of the committee's labour, so far as devising some method of encouraging volunteering, amounts to nothing—an infinite deal of nothing 1 In the lirst place they are of opinion that the present, capitation allowance would be sufficient, with economy—mark well the last two words —for the purchase of uniforms and other necessaries, if trade certain for three years, and if the duty on uniforms was remitted. I am given to understand the uniform of the Hamilton volunteers costs £3 (is, without an overcoat, with an over joat £4 lis ; thus there would be a debit balance of one shilling on every complete uniform purchased after spending the whole of the company's capitation grant for a term of thiee years, even if every membtr of the corps were to make himself efticient— not a very likely thing in a district like this, where the men have to go miles away U work. There are other expenses besides uniforms to meet, and if at the. end of six years a corps is out of debt, it has done very well. A six-year-old uniform has seen the best of its days, and will soon want replacing, so we can quite understand the point of the words " with economy " under these circumstances. The next recommendation of the committee was to the elfect that volunteers should be exempt from jury service. This no doubt w-uild be a slight benefit to town ; to country volunteers, who are seldom or never called upon to act as jurors, it amounts to nothing. A suggestion was made that efticient volunteers should bo carried on the railways at half rates upon their producing certificates of efficiency, but this, which would have been a tangible privilege, they stited they could not recommend at pre-ent. This, then, again amounts to nothing. The CotLtniU 'e state that more daylight parades are essential to efficiency, and a general opinion was found to exist in favour of paying volunteers half-a-crown for each daylight pande for certiin drills each year, to be deducted from the cipifation if the (iovernment could not make ii additional. Thus, this would only b« robbing Peter to pay I'.iul, and in elfect again amounts to nothing. The committee declined to recommend that the free issue of ammunition should be increased to 150 rounds. The committee do not recommend tho Kharkee colour for uniform, as it soils readily and causes wav.fc of uniformity in appearance, while a bright uniform att'act-i young men to the force. This recommendation dues not amount to very much one w»y»t the other ; but volunteers may as well lie polite, express their deep sense of obligation to the committee for the amount of thought they have bestowed upon them, and—thank them for nothing.

t The suggestion made to the committee that volunteeis should be al- , make effective lowed the privilege of OR niSBANI). travailing mi the railways , at halt rates would have been a substantial one, and an acknowledgment by the country that tlioir action in enrolling for its defence and the sacrifice of ' time made by them in acquiring a knowledge of drill and the use of weapons—tor if volunteering is not a shain, this is what 1 it really amount-i to—were duly appreciated. By adopting the suggestion referred to I do not believe the railway revenue would have been seriously affected, if at all,and its effect upon the cause of volunteering would certainly have been beneficial. If it is thought that volunteers are necessary for the proper defence of New Zealand, then it is certainly right and proper they should receive every euc'iuragement and privilege the Government can extend to them ; but if on the other hand, they are but a sham and a show then the sooner they aro disbanded the better. There is one point in the report of the committee above referred | a hint to that conveys a useful TO unmarried hint to spinsters, or to LADIES. widows who may again desire to enjoy the felicity of married life. It 13 the opinion of the potent, grave, and reverend seigniors composing the committee that a red coat is a sufficiently powerful inducement to attract young men to the force. Then, why should not a red dress be equally powerful in at- , trading them to the ladies '! Young lailies now-a-days do not receive the attention they shnuld do at the hands of the young men, who seem dreadfully shy of entering the married state, and—" Why don't the men propose?'' is a question often and anxiously asked by our forlorn and neglected If they take myaivico they will test the tr ith of the opinion ex-pressed in the report, act upon the hint, doti scarlet dresses, and go out and " paint the town red." On the strength of a paragraph which recently went the rounds dkad of the papers, many celestials. fastidious tea - drinkers may have been tempted to swear-off the further use of tea—Chinese teas, at aoy rate. It is well-known that Chinamen are particularly anxious that their remains alter death shall find their final resting-place in the Flowery Land, and I believe it is enjoined by their religion that their bodies shall be sent back to become incorporated with their native soil. The remains of many hundreds of Chinamen are thus returned to China every year from a'l parts of the world, and whatever may be the reasous for the custom, it is one that has its advantages from an agricultural chemists' point of view, and one that is calculated to have a good elFect on the plant life of the Celestial Empire. The paragraph in question stated that it was tho practice of the preserved Chinese to preserve the IX TEA. bodies of their departed friends in large chests of tea; after which the same tea is re-packed and sold in the ordinary way, the packages, however, being so marked as to be easily recognised by Chinamen who leavenaturally enough too, 1 think—such tea for foreign consumption. Mr Chew Cliong, the Taranaki butter-maker and influenza expert, has, however, written a letter to a Southern paper, in which he denies the truth of the statement, and it really is a relief to think we may still drink our Ivaison, Twanlcay or scented Pekoe teried by the supposition that they may have been impregnated with the gases arising from the remains of a decomposing 1 Chinaman. Fl'.see. :