A FIFTH WHEEL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1338, 16 January 1912, Page 5

A FIFTH WHEEL.

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL CADETS. J.\" THE SCHKME OF THINGS. HAVE THEY A PLAGE? (By "Senior Sub.") A question which must sooner or later engage the attention of the Administratiun is whether, in the lately reorganised schema of things military, there is room lor our highly-organised junior cadet system, with its Commandant, Headquarters Staff, battalions, corps of leachernflicers, elaborate regulations, and so forth. Indeed, there ure certain reasons why tins question should not bo deferred at all. The hear! of this department (Major T. W. M'Donald), who draws a snlaiy of £170 per annum (.£45 in excess pi that received by the Officer Commanding the Wellington Military District), has just gone to England for a course of training in the Imperial Army, and it is idle for anyone to suggest, as was officialiy suggested the pther day, that the experience and added efficiency which he hopes to gain from his sojourn in England will be at the service of the Junior Cadet Department when he returns to New Zealand. Major , M'Donald is ono of the senior officers in the New Zealand Staff Corps, seconded for employment under the Education Department, as Commandant of the. Junior Cadets, and the Defence Department, which is footing the bill for his course of instruction in England, will certainly recall him, on his return, to take up a staff appointment suited to his capacity. In the meantime, his staff officer, Lieutenant A. C. C. Stevens, who draws JE2SO n year, and sonic months ago was placed on the New Zealand Staff Corps, is presiding over the adjninistrativo work of the Junior Cadet Department, and drawing increased pay at the rate of ,£3jO a year. Altogether, this Department .will, cost the country ,£6190 for the twelve months ending March, nest, plus the increase of, pay granted by Cabinet to Lieutenant Stevens, and plus, also, the increase of pay which will be earned by the senior staff instructor in the employ of the Department, who is stated to have been raised to the position of acting-staff officer to the actingcommandant. The Staff Officer. En passant, it may be remarked that the public, and more especially the members of the teaching profession, have never been altogether satisfied with the action of the Government in appointing an outsider to the position of Stuff Officer to tho Commandant of the Junior Cadets, and the prospect .of the Acting-Command-ant ultimately stepping into, the shoes of his senior is viewed with still less satisfaction. At the very outset, the Government—the Administration which has lately been, shown to have forfeited the confidence of the country—loudly professed its desire to see as many New Zealanders as possessed the necessary qualifications appointed to such positions under the now defence scheme as might be open to them. The position of Staff Officer to the Commandant of the Junior Cadets was peculiarly one for a New Zealand teacher-officer to fill, for obvious reasons, tho principal one of which was that a public school cadet officer of tried experience and efficiency would have been of invaluablo assistance to 'his senior in all negotiations with tho school authorities. In short, the arguments in favour of such a selection were so strong that it would appear to tho average thinker that the Government could not possibly have entertained any other suggestion. Nevertheless, the appointment, for which there was no competition, . was. , given to, a comparative stranger—a subaltern officer who had retirod from the Royal Field Artillery, and had latterly been a member of a comic opera company. Without criticising Lieutenant Stevens's fitness for his position which is a question apart from tho principle under discussion, tho fact remains that his appointment was ono of those political improprieties which have brought the Ward Administration into disrepute. That it was tolerated without protest by thoso -most immediately concerned—the teacher-officers—is no credit to them, and served to furnish an additional instance of tho apathy with which the extraordinary appointments conferred by that Government were regarded by the public. Quite Unique, As a subordinate branch of tho Education Department, tho Junior Cadet Department has enjoyed an independence of action which must have been the eavy of every other branch of the Civil Service. Nominally, the Cadet Department rendered obedience to the Minister for Education. Actually, it is well known that the quasi-military character of its administration brought its Departmental head, first as a matter of expediency, and latterly as a matter of habit, into close touch with tho Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, who is also Defence Minister, and that the Education .Department regarded its junior cadet branch as something entirely beyond its control. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that a sub-department, enjoying such unique independence, has been unable to avoid a conflict with public opinion, as for example, in "L'Affaire Ballachey," a discreditable pieco of official tyranny which drew from the Teachers' Institute an emphatic protest, and,which has never yet been properly explained by tho Department; nor is it difficult to comprehend why an ex-officer of the Imperial Army, in his official capacity as Staff-Officer to the Cadet Commandant, should have so far forgotten the strict etiouettfl of the Service as to have solicited 'by circular' subscriptions from teacherofficers to a-fund designed to purchase a present for his senior officer. No matter how well such a Department may te administered, it is impossible to avoid the suspicion that independence of this lcmU is enjoyed by political favour and this suspicion is strengthened when it is remembeml that whatever administrative indiscretions were committed by tho Junior Cadet Department were shielded bv the Government, and the head ot the Department allowed to make his own explanations in the public press, over his own signature! Circumstances Alter Cases. Since, however, tho above points do not materially trench upon the main question, viz., "is there, in the reorganised scheme of things, n place for the Junior Cadot Department i" an affirmative answer to the latter would merely impose upon the Government tho duty of amendin'' its peculiar constitution, :i duty which the Ward Government, nt anyratc, would shirk, for the political reasons already hinted at. But the circumstances which at least constituted an excuse for the orI gimisation of thn public school boys into companies and battalions, clad them in uniforms, equipped them with rifles, belts, pouches, and so on, and, in short, created mi army of boy soldiers, ceased to exist when tho new defence -•cheme was evolved. Consider tho facts. Under the old regime, the most valuable return which the country expected to receivo for its expenditure .upon , the school cadets was a stronger sense of discipline, a keener appreciation of patriotism, an elementary knowledge of musketry, and an acquired taste Tor soldiering which might induce a large majority of the boys to follow up the game in the volunteer army later on. This last expectation was the most important of all, and the most speculative. However, nobody will deny that tho movement did a large amount of good to volunteering, even if, in a great measure, it served as a convenient advertisement for certain politicians. Crowded Out. What is the position now? Under the compulsory provisions of the Defence Act a boy i-i liable to two years' training in the Junior Cadets, or an equivalent course us a Boy Scout; four years' training in the Senior Cadets; seven years' training in the Territorial Force; and one yiMir's enlistment in the Reserve. This is putting the liability at the maximum defined by tho Act. What will probably happen is that the authorities will at present, at any rule, insist on the Junior Cadet (raining, tho Senior Cadet course, and four years in the adult forces, provided tho citizen soldier qualifies as efficient in that lime. Cutting out: the Junior Caui'ls, there still remains eight years of service, assuming the above probability—which is a fair stretch. It may be argued, with soino point, that the training of the Junior Cadets has lately been so denuded of its military requirements that it cannot be seriously regarded as l'nililarj tmJmatJ that at its best it nro-,,

vides n training in free gymnastics, an elementary knowledge of musketry, and bo on. Granted. Then, why pay JCGOOO odd a year to maintain a highly-centralised Department to control (his instruction? Thai- is Hie position in a nutshell. The advent uf thousands of Senior • Cadets, who, from H to IS, will bo systematically trained, has removed tho.military raison (I'd re of tlio School Cadets, and Iho work now asked of them could quite eusily, and with less pretence, to done, by the. teachers themselves. The joke of the situation is that while (ho School Cadets, boys from 32 to H, havo their companies, battalions, and all (ho semblanco of a mininturo army when pnraded for ceremonial, tho Senior Cadet comimuies have no battalion organisation, and the system of control is decentralised as far as possible. The battalion organisation for School Cadets lms never been a success, ns "V Affairo Ballachey demonstrated. These school battalions should bo broken up, and tho reins of authority handed back to tho headmasters nf (ho schools, under tho control of their education boards. As for the Junior Cadet Department-well, gentlemen, we thank you for your services, and will and something else for -vou to do.