THAT VOLUNTEER SPECIAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 980, 22 November 1910, Page 6

THAT VOLUNTEER SPECIAL.

. "TERRORISED TERRITORIALS." "As an ex-volunteer, and ono who has often travelled to Trentbarn with shooting' parties, and also who has travel; led extensively on railways in other parts of the Dominion," writes "Marker," "I .was surprised to . read the rather humorous complaints-as to alleged reckless driving or excessive speed of Saturday's volunteer train. I am not going to exaggerate as your correspondent 'did, but i am quite cognisant of the manner in which the brave volunteers, or Territorials as they are now called, conduct themselves on these occasions. During their excursions my invariable experience has been that a lot of good-humored horse-play is.indulged in, .such as sparring, bayonet exercises, wrestling, etc., whilst travelling; and.at any rate.it is a physical impossibility for a rifle, unaided'by any person, to 'fall \rackv These racks are placed longitudinally in our New Zealand trains, and the netting slopes downward from the external rail. As a riflo weighs from ten to fourteen pounds, it will .make its own bed in the netting, and so it , cannot fall out, no matter what the speed, unless someone, for a practical joke, placed it in such a position that it was bound to fall down. . In my time wo were only too pleased to. get a-free ride.rand the agitation was against the slowness of the train. Now that a more SDeedy bain -is being runthe complaint "is tho other way. As a matter of fact the train, excluding stops; is one minute slower than the Napier , mail. Goodness knows what would happen if some of these querulous individuals were to travel by the mail'. There is- no need to get into a panic because someone has got a little.attack of nerves. I hope he wasn't a Territorial, for. I can hardly imagine anyone worthy of the name of soldier making such an effeminate .clatter." [Ono of the Territorials who was travelling in the last' car,of the volunteer special in its down-trip on Saturday tells a different story.- He states' that the occupants of the rear end of the train suffered most from the motion of the train during its run round the Silverstream bend. Rifles were fairly jerked out of the rack-nets, and some of the men became so apprehensive of the immediate future that they got out on to the platform of the car, in. readiness to jump, if necessary. Nearer the engine the oscillation " was less' serious. One man received a sharp blow on the head from a falling rifle.l .