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paying a succession of passages from England for fresh officers. To meet this difficulty as far as possible, and endeavour to attach officers to their posts, the Board recommend a sliding scale, giving extra advantages obtainable by continued service. They recommend that after five years' service an adjutant should receive a bonus of £50, and for each succeeding year's service his pay should be increased by £10. Limit of Age of Officers. All commissioned officers may enter the service up to forty-five years, but must retire at fifty-five years of age. Staff Sergeants and Drill-Instructors. Staff sergeants and drill-instructors are provided for in proposed regulations. They will be required to pass examinations to prove their fitness for the post, and it will be the interest, as well as the duty, of adjutants and commanding officers to keep them up to as high a standard as possible. The limits of age for these appointments will be the same as for commissioned officers, but those now in the service, and re-engaging under the new system, may be allowed to do so at any age, so long as they do not exceed the limit of 55 years. Discipline and Inspection. Eegulations on these points have been laid down, enforcing generally a greater strictness. A necessary supplement to the regulations will be a set of standing orders, which the commandant on appointment will at once compile for the guidance of his command. Election of Officers. Company officers will not be elected by their men as heretofore, but a modified form of nomination for junior grades is recommended, with promotion afterwards by seniority. Pay and Capitation Allowance (First Line). The capitation grant for the Volunteers of the First Line has been proposed at the low rate of 10s. per efficient, and this is intended to go to the general fund of the battery or company. The remuneration that the Volunteers individually are to receive is given for their attendance at daylight drills, and therefore a Volunteer, by attending the full number of drills laid down (twenty), can earn up to £2 10s. per aunum. To insure attendance at a certain number of daylight drills, no pay will be given, nor will a certificate of efficiency be granted, until fifteen have been attended. The Volunteers of this line are also to receive from Government a free uniform and greatcoat—the uniform to last for three years, the greatcoat for six. Second Line. The Volunteers of this line are not required to attend daylight drills to qualify for capitation, which has been fixed at the sum of £1 10s. for each efficient member. They will supply their own uniforms, as at present. Eequirements foe Efficiency and Examinations. Eegulations under this head have been made, and the details of examinations that will be required have also beenlaid down. HONOEAEY MEMBEES AND HONOEAEY EESEEVE MEMBERS. Besides the usual class of honorary members, as allowed by present rules, the Board have considered it advisable to institute another class, who will be borne upon the rolls as honorary reserve members. These will consist of all Volunteers who may have served efficiently for six years in the force, and who, upon retiring, may desire to remain as honorary members of that portion of the force to which they belonged. They will be entitled so to remain without the payment of any subscription, and can only be called upon to serve again upon Proclamation by the Governor of an emergency to resist invasion. These men, in course of time, may form the nucleus of a reserve force. Punishments and Courts-maetial. It is proposed that the punishments to which Volunteers shall be amenable shall be largely increased, and the proposals made by the Board under this head have been very freely taken from the Volunteer rules of South Australia, where they appear to have been worked with success. The maintenance of discipline and the power of enforcing obedience to orders is a paramount necessity. No good man, who intends to act up to what his offer of service implies, need fear the working of these rules ; they will affect and keep in check those only who will not act up to their professions, and who do not hesitate, for the gratification of their own ill-regulated feelings, to bring into bad repute the whole body of the comrades with whom they are associated. Certain punishments are allowed to be inflicted in a summary manner by the different grades of officers, while the more severe punishments can only be inflicted after trial by court-martial. From some of the punishments an appeal is allowed to higher authority. Asms, Accoutrements, and Ammunition. Various regulations have been made as to these. The chief alteration in existing rules, proposed by the Board, being that of allowing a larger proportion of both ball- and blank-ammunition per annum to Volunteers free of charge ; as also to oblige every Volunteer to go through a course of class-firing and judging-distance practice annually before he can obtain a certificate of efficiency. It is of far more importance, as a body of soldiers, that each man should be a fair average shot, than that each company should contain a few crack ones. Camps. The Board quite recognize the value of an annual course of training (in addition to the drills specified) of five or six days in succession. However desirable such assemblies may be, the Board have reason to believe that, were attendance at such rendered compulsory, the relations between those employed and their employers would become and, as a consequence, render the Volunteer Service unpopular.

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