The Feilding Star. Published Daily. TUESDAY. JULY 4, 1893. Our Commandant's Report

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 3, 4 July 1893, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Published Daily. TUESDAY. JULY 4, 1893. Our Commandant's Report

The report on the New Zealand Volunteer Force by Lieut-Colonel Fox is now before us. It is very bulky, and has evidently been compiled with care. The alterations recommended are of v. sweeping and drastic cfiaracter, hut whether they will be adopted by the House remains to lie seen. The following extract gives the key to ! the whole report. Colonel Fox says j 11 1 have made a searching inspection. With a better state of affairs generally, I have little doubt but the tide of volunteering will once more rlow ; at present it is but very low water. If volunteering ceases to exist, the colony will have to face a much larger expenditure than at present." Of the men he thinks favourably and that they have done their best under circumstances in which they hiive known that their best must be indifferent. Their officers are, *n iihi.we, unskilled either as drill instructors or in the art of commanding or leading men. Their drill instructors supplied by the Government ar<>. generally out of date and insufficient." The gallant Colonel is somewhat contradictory here. He blames officers for not knowing their drill, yet in the same sentence he saya their instructors were " insufficient and out of date." However we do not dispute the general accuracy of his statement. He goes on to say " Tlieir arms are useless and often unsafe. They have been ground down in the way of capitation. They have no haversacks, waterbottles, great coate, valises, or means of carrying ammunition. They know all this too well ; and yet their spirit has been such that they have held on nnd on, not knowing what the next year might bring forth, but hoping against hope that something might be done for them. It would be hard to find a better spirit than generally prevails among the men composing the volunteer force. Of tlie officers he suys : They are not as good as they might be, and the shiiio may be said of the noncommissioned officers, but in reality I can attach but small blame to those who are behindhand. They have never had the chance of either example or instruction." In order to make the volunteer force efficient he thinks it is necessary he should be given a staff officer to work with him and take in hand the instruction of officers throughout the Colon y, also to help in inspections. The Wellington Post considers the report scarcely up to date.