VOLUNTEER INTELLIGENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 3797, 26 April 1875, Page 3

VOLUNTEER INTELLIGENCE.

In a report to the Government, on the recent encampment at Nelson, the Hon. Major Richmond, C.8., says:—“l can assure you it is most gratifying to me to witness the change from apathy to zeal, and from inertness to activity and attention. This improvement I date from the Colonial Firing in 187 M. The contact with other volunteers, the opportunity of observing their discipline, and the emulation this created brought about a reaction, which was every day increased. Another instance of the benefit arising from friendly rivalry was furnished by the presence of a detachment of Artillery from Wellington. The Nelson Artillery Company, being only of some two years standing, were at first rather doubtful of the comparison they would bear with the detachment of a company that deservedly stands so high in the Colonial force, and when they commenced to drill together, the Wellington Artillery surpassed the Nelson Company in quickness of movement, but at the review which closed the encampment, the latter had improved so much that they went through several of their movements with greater celerity than the Wellington detachment. The result of the meeting of volunteers in Nelson in 1873, and that of Hie recent encampment, suggests the consideration whether a camp on a larger scale, comprising one or more companies of volunteers from each Province, would not be productive of benefit to the Colonial force. It is unquestionable that the large assemblage of volunteers at the camps in England, has tended, In a large degree, to raise that force to the high state of efficiency it attained, and it is, therefore, but reasonable to suppose, that camps held periodically in New Zealand would, in proportion to our means and appliances, improve onr Colonial troops: and this, I suggest, could be effected without much, if any, additional expense to the Colony by arranging that the firing for the General Government prizes should take place every second year, and the encampment be substituted on the alternate years. The advantages I have instanced of holding these encampments, and the benefit I have personally witnessed to accrue from several regiments or detachments being brought together will I trust, be sufficient apology for my having troubled you with these suggestions. To the above Major Richmond has received a reply from the Hon. Dr Pollen in the absence of the Native Minister, acknowledging the receipt of, and thanking him for, his report, and stating that the suggestions made by him relative to encampments on a large scale, alternately with the Colonial prize firing, are deemed worthy of consideration, and that his report will be laid before Sir Donald M‘JLean on his return to Wellington. With the view of making the batteries in New Zealand more efficient, Captain Burns of the Auckland Artillery, has submitted to the commanding officers his views, and has received from them the reply that they heartily concur in the suggestions contained in his letter. The suggestions were that the whole of the Artillery Batteries should be formed into one regiment under the command of the senior officer, who is Captain Pearce of Wellington, the whole force to be dressed with uniforms of the sime pattern and color, the issue by the Defence Minister of more guns, and the several batteries to meet once in each year at different gaits of the Colony for competition in gun