H.—24.

travel, do not reach the camp till late on the Friday afternoon, and have to leave again early in the afternoon of the Monday, thus showing the time for drill, &c, to be very short. But many corps derive much benefit even from this short encampment. Capitation. —The system of giving all branches of the service the same capitation appears to be somewhat unfair, as it is manifest that mounted corps, field batteries, and engineers are put to much greater expense in wear and tear than the infantry. It must be recollected that in mounted corps there is a man and horse to be taken into consideration; in field batteries the guns to be kept clean and in serviceable order; and in the engineers a large supply of tools and appliances to be kept up; and these corps for the above-stated reasons require more capitation than infantry, but an adjustment is insurmountable. It is suggested that the amount of capitation decided upon should be guaranteed for three years, the men being enrolled for a like period. This would put an end to the uncertainty that prevails from year to year in the Force as regards the amount of capitation that will be passed by the House of Eepresentatives ; and in order to do away with the injustice now existing, under which regular attendants cannot count many parades they attend, in consequence of two-thirds of the total strength not being present, the capitation should be divided up into so many parades —say, a £2 capitation is divided into sixteen parades of 2s. 6d. each, then every man present would be credited with 2s. 6d. for each parade he attended, and absentees would be fined a like amount, the 2s. 6d. being credited to those present irrespective of whether two-thirds of the corps were present or not. As soon therefore as the regular attendant had put in his sixteen parades he would have earned his capitation, and would not be required to attend several extra parades, as he has to do under existing regulations, to enable the casual attendants to obtain capitation. Corps inspected. —The corps inspected by me during the past year were the Eangitikei Cavalry, Wairoa Light Horse, Heretaunga Mounted Infantry, Canterbury Mounted Bines, Marlborough Hussars, and Alexandra Cavalry. Naval Artillery : Wanganui, Port Chalmers, Dunedin, Bluff, Peninsula, Ponsonby, Auckland, Napier, Nelson, Lyttelton, Wellington, Petone, Greymouth, and Westport. Field Batteries :A,B,D,E, F, G, and H. Garrison Batteries: L, N, and O. Engineers : Auckland, Canterbury, and Duuedin. Bifles: Inangahua, Brunner, Ist Westland, Kumara, Greymouth, Wellington City, Wellington Guards, Wellington Eifl.es, Christchurch Guards, Christchurch Bifles, Christchurch Scottish, Christ College Bifles, Sydenham, Eichmond, Canterbury Irish, Kaiapoi, Eangiora, Nelson City, Stoke, W'aimea, Blenheim, Blenheim City, Hastings, Napier, Victoria, Newton, Auckland City Guards, Auckland Boyal Irish, Onehunga, Invercargill City Guards, North Dunedin, Dunedin City Guards, Wakari, Dunedin Highland Bifles, Dunedin Irish Bifles, South District Bifles, Boyal Eangitikei, Pahnerston North, Wanganui City. Cadets: Wanganui Collegiate, Wellington College, Beefton, Westport, Kumara, Christ College, Christchurch High School, Kaiapoi, Christchurch Queen's Cadets (four companies), Nelson College, Blenheim, Napier High School, Invercargill Middle School. Corps specially worthy of mention are Eangitikei Cavalry and Heretaunga Mounted Infantry. Both these corps have made considerable improvement in drill; while the Marlborough Hussars and Christchurch Mounted Bifles are both good serviceable corps. The Wellington, Napier, Bluff, and Petone Navals are all much improved. The A, B, D, E, and G Batteries are all worthy of special mention, though there were a considerable number of absentees from the A Battery. The Dunedm Engineers is a particularly good corps, though it also had a great many absentees from inspection. Of the rifle corps the Wellington City, Nelson City, Kumara, Stoke, Ist Westland, North Dunedin, Waimea, Wakari, Dunedin Highland, Blenheim, and South District all had good musters, and were efficient and steady under arms; while of the cadets Nelson College, Kaiapoi, Wellington College, Kumara, and Christ College are all worthy of commendation. The corps not inspected were Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry, Waiuku, Te Awamutu, Otago Hussars, North Otago Hussars, East Coast Hussars, and South Franklyn Mounted Infantry. Naval Artillery: Thames, Timaru, and Oamaru. Field Batteries C and I. Bifles : Wairoa, Biverton, Bruce, Taranaki, Greytown. Masterton, Manchester, Ashburton, Waitahuna, Featherston, Geraldine, Timaru, East Taieri, Temuka, Naseby, Waimate, Hawera, Tuapeka, Kaitangata, Papawai, Palmerston South, Gore, Eiversdale. and the Hamilton Light Infantry. I have, &c, A. Hume, Lt.-Col. N.Z.M., Acting "Under-Secretary for Defence.

EEPOET UPON HAEBOUE-DEFENCES FOE THE YEAE 1890-1891. Temporary Prisons, and Convict-labour. There has been no new departure during the year. The material points deserving notice in connection with the temporary prisons in which the convicts are housed on the works, and with the nature and value of their work, were fully dealt with in the reports for 1889 (H.-16) and 1890 (H.-15), and the remarks therein printed hold good as applying also to the present year. Designs of Works. These have been based on the principle also detailed in the two reports above quoted. The work of the year has been chiefly expended in carrying to completion those works which had reached an initiatory or advanced stage of progress at the date of last report, and there has consequently been no special development in the direction of the application of any new designs. In one or two cases, modifications of the temporary works so hastily thrown up in the scare of 1885, with a view of adapting them to the requirements of permanent-fortification principles, have been included iv the year's programme. The processes of comparative dismantling occasioned by such

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