MILITARY CAMP.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2384, 13 February 1915, Page 5

MILITARY CAMP.

NORTH ISLAND RAILWAY BATTALION. Considerable interest is being taken in a military camp of instruction for the officors and senior non-commissioned officers of the North Island Railway Battalion, N.Z. Enginoors, which will bo held at Turakina, in tho Wangamii district, commencing on February 13. Tho camp will be under tho command of Lieutenant-Colonel G. Barclay, V.D., of Auckland, Battalion Commander. The Railway Battalions of Field Engineers represent the contribution of tho Railway Service to the Territorial system of defence, and New Zealand has tho distinction of having providod the first fully-organisod Railway within the Empire. Tho systom of training synchronises with tho civil occupations of the men, and probably no other Territorial unit has less difficulty in bringing the average recruit to an average sta"o of efficiency. A large proportion of the members belong to various technical branches of the Railway Service; some ten per cent, of tho men in the ranks aTe qualified telegraphists, and every branch of railway activity is represented. Thero are traffic control officers and locomotive men, electricians, fitters, carpenters, plumbers ; and all tho other tradesmen, and technical workers who make up the efficient and self-con-tained Railway Service. No inconsiderable portion of the efficiency of the training of the Railway Battalion is due to tho periodical instruction of the officers in training, camps and schools 'of instruction, and it is expected that tho forthcoming, camp will' be. of great benefit to. tho military efficiency of officers and N.C.O.'s. A full training syllabus is to bo gone through, comprising ■ pontoon and other bridging, mining, trenching, and sapping, musketry, explosives, demolitions, military railway oontrol, ete., in addition to musketry and other infantry work. The officers and senior non-commissioned officers of all North Island companies will go into camp from February 13 to February 22. Colonel. Hiley, Director of Railway Transport, will be present for portion of the time.