ROUGH RIDERS IN TRAINING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2279, 13 October 1914, Page 6

ROUGH RIDERS IN TRAINING

FARMERS ACTIVE. Whilst- Wellington and some of the other centres have borne tho appearance of garrison towns during tho past few weeks through the presence of khaki-clad troops, the farmers in at least one district not a hundred miles from Wellington have taken upon themselves tho work of making themselves efficient as mounted troops'. Onco a week some fifty or sixty husky sons of the soil, splendidly mounted, assemble at a central point, and undergo a course of instruction that should make them an exceedingly useful body of men should, the occasion ever ariso when their services might be required. A good many of the farmers have rifles, and take them to drill, whilst those who are not so equipped are armed with manuka saplings, which they handle as though they were rifles. Each man is naturally a good horseman, but it is one thing being a good horseman, and another being an efficient. mounted trooper, with a knowledge of company movements, drill orders, bugle calls, etc., and it is such knowledge that theso fine fellows are now acquiring in a rough and ready manner near their own farms. The idea of becoming efficient as a mounted corps was taken up quite voluntarily by the farmers of tho district referred to..