DEFENCE NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 205, 23 May 1908, Page 14

DEFENCE NOTES.

(Br Echelon.)

Secretaries of Volunteer Corps and Riflo Clubs are invited to ■ contribute items of interest for insertion in this ■ column. At the official opening of the.new Garrison Hall in-Buckle Street on June 3, Colonel A. W. Robin, C.8., Chief of tho General Staff, will present the Garrison Artillery Shield for efficiency, and tho Coast Defence Artillery Cup for shooting, to the' winners, the -Potono Navals', and tho Field Artillery Efficiency Challenge Shield to tho D Battery. Mr. Stuart Robinson has been elected to a liontenancy in tho Petono Navals. ' Mr. Robinson was for many years in tho D Battery of Artillery, becoming corporal. He ~ also served as a sergeant with the Sevonth Now Zealand, Contingent in South •With some comrades ho captured a Boer gun and used it against tho oiiGiny,'being wounded in tho ensuing engagement. . . ' ■ Dp to tho time of writing, reports " Bull'soye," thoro is only one entry from Christchurch, viz., the Second North Canterbury miautry Battalion, for the 100 guinea challenge trophy presented to tho National: Rifle Association by tieut.-Colonel Raymond, : Schunphor, Witwatersrand . Rifles, South . Africa, to be competed for throughout the British Empiro annually on Empire Day. Tho> British Army Riflo Association, acting in deference to the Army Council, have 1 decided to institute two championship com-, petitions for the Regular Array. One will ho for^officers and sergeants, and the other will be for corporals and privates.' Thus the experienced shot and the young soldier will be, separated.- Both events will bd under service conditions, with moving targets. ; The signallers of tho various ■volunteer companies in, Wellington have set up a com- ! mitteo with tho object : of. : devising means for familiarising the men with each, other, and .to arrange for. inter-company competitions daring'the year. The position at present is that the signallers have no: shield or other trophy to train for. Military tournaments . and the annual examinations' are tho only spurs to efficiency that the signallers have, and it speaks - well for the men that under such circumstances they.have reached;the standard of efficiency, that characterises thein. -

'• -The hew six-pounder Q.F. guns for Fort Dorset/ at the Heads, have now boon placed in position. . "DAILY 3IAIL"'EMPIRE DAY CUP, : ■ A recent' - issue of the London/ " Daily • ila.il"' contains tlie following note on the prizes ofrcrod for competition in the forthcoming Empire Day match. .The prizes offered are:— ? "A ' hundred-guinea cup, to go to the club : which makes the. best score in the whole Empire, this cup to. bo held for one year only, unless, of course, the same club should .win it two or more yoafs running. • A fifty-guinea, cup, to the rifle" club which ir.okos the best score in the United com. ■" ' A fifty-guinea.cup, to the rifle club which makes the best score in any nart of the, -Empire' outside the United Kingdom. 1' ; The fifty-guinea cups will be won outright each year, and will remain the pronerty of the clubs which win them. ; A

THE BRITISH TERRITORIAL ARMY. ■ The following is a concise summary of the constitution of the new British Territorial «XOiy • t ' The new Territorial Army will be organised on severer principles than the Volunteers. All ■ the battalions will be of one' strength 1009 officers and men, whereas one Volunteer battalion might number 1800 men and the next 750. Further, the troops> of- the new Army will be formed into brigades and divisions comprising all the arms. 'The future organisation is to be as followsFourteen Mounted - Brigades, each composed- of— . ~' a ■ •. ■ • • 3 Yeomanryi-Regimcnts, • arjiv 1 Horse Artillery Battery, - " ■ Transport and Ambulance. Fourteen Infantry Divisions, cach composed 3 Infantry Brigades (twelve battalions), .3 Field Batteries, ■ 1 Howitzer Battery, 1 Heavy Battery, \Divisional, Cavalry, . .Ammunition Column, Transport and Supply, Ambulance, and three companies of Engineers. •. < : - In addition to the above thero will bo a number - of battalions,, infantry and cyclist, not embodied in the divisions and brigades for use as army troops or reserves; and an establishment of garrison artillery and en- « f° r e *ch fortress within the' area. ih<v County Associations are' to find th» recruits and attgnd to the finance of the new Army, for which purpose!they< will r«- ; ceive grants from the War Office. The total strength is to be 314,094 officers and men which/ is. 45,000 above the ,'forco of the old V olunteers and Yeomanry. • Enlistmont will be for four years, and Volunteers have till June 30■ next to decidc whether thev are going.to join. ■ . . Tho service uniform' will be' of- drab colour; tho annual • training will; include eight, days in camp, which will be compulsory for eiiiciency. When tho Army ResorVo as called out, the Territorial Army may be calJed out, for service in England,'arid kent embodied. • . 1 • In future, parents or guardians will be re-qun-edto undertake, on the entry of a cadet into the Royal' Navy, that, ii the event of his withdrawing or. being withdrawn from tho college or from the Wavy' before being con-lirraeda-s a sub-houtenant, thfiy will pay to the Admiralty, if demanded, the sum of £25 per term m respect of each, term passed by hiin at the_ RiN. Colleges, Osborne, and Dartmouth, from the date of his entry to the ■date of his withdrawal, as a contribution towards the balance of the cost of his training and maintenance not cohered' bv tho annual payment'of £75. This undertaking c.oes not apply to cadets.withdraw- at the .request of tho Admiralty. •