WEST COAST STAUNCH

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2004, 11 March 1914, Page 7

WEST COAST STAUNCH

NO ANTI-MILITARY HOTBED. (By telegraph.— Press Association.) Chrlstchurch, March 10. The officer commanding the. Canterbury Military District (Colonel V. S. Smyth) lias returned to headquarters after a tour of -inspection in Nelson and West-land. Certain parts of Westland havo, in the past, been, quoted as being hotbeds of anti-militarism, and it has' been freely stated that, in some centres, not a single lad was parading. The officer commanding tho district is of opinion that, whatever may havo been tho state of affairs in tho past, thero has been a rcmarkablo dovelopment of territorial and senior cadet training on tho West Coast. Tho parado states of tho senior cadet companies in Area Group No. 11 (comprising tho Westland Land District and a portion of tho Nelson district) afforded a complete refutation of the statements made by opponents of military training. Tho following table of tho parade states of senior cadct3 at inspections held by Colonel Smyth give some remarkable figures:—R<sefkm, strength 59, present 53; Blackball, strength "23, present 19; Runanga, strength 29, present 23; Greymoutn, strength 70, present 46, 19 absent with leave; Greymouth, strength 119, present 87, i 8 absent with leave; Hokitika, strength 74,. present 74; Brunnerton, strength 22, .present 21; Denniston. strength 70, present 70; Coast Defence Infantry, strength 466, present 393, 46 absent with leave.

Four parade states, giving the absentees "without leave, namely:—Blackball, Riinanga, and Greymouth (2) show that out of a total strength of 241 {here were only 27 delinquents.