AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1084, 24 March 1911, Page 4

AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR.

CORONATION CONTINGENT CRITICISED. Rather late in the day for effective protest comes a searching criticism of the military contingent which is to represent New Zealand at tho King's Coronation in Juno next, certain of tho selected members thereof having already left theso shores. One of the selected members of tho contingent, an officer. of one of the mounted regiments, unburdened his mind on tho subject of the personnel of the contingent to a representative of Tim Dominion yesterday. In the first place, he contended, such a contingent should consist entirely of moil from tho mounted regiments, if it were desired to bo an efficient and thoroughly presentablo representation of our military forces. This contingent was very far from meeting this first and essential requirement. It was a motley of various branches of the service, and of varying statures. Secondly, he said, tho method of assembling the contingent in London, instead of dispatching it as an organised unit, with a compioto establishment of officers and non-commis-sioned officers, was altogether unsatisfactory, and needlessly expensive. Had tho contingent been organised here, and dispatched by a selected vessel, tho ends of discipline and general efficiency would lmve been better served, and the reduced fares would have been obtainable, llio men would have got to know each other, and a desirable esprit-de-corps and community of interest established. . As the case now was, tho various individual members of the chosen sixty will arrivo iu London via different routes, by various steamers, and report to tho iiigU Commissioner during the first week iu June. A nice preparation, lie concluded, for the parade, on Coronation Day, of a representative unit of the New Zealand Territorial Force!