The Fielding Star. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1894. COMMANDANT FOX.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 273, 28 March 1894, Page 2

The Fielding Star. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1894. COMMANDANT FOX.

♦ ■ We are informed that Lieut. Colonel Fox, the Commandant of the New Zealand forces, has requested the Government to relieve him of the duties of the position at the end of the current month. This intelligence was quite unexpected although not altogether surprising when it is considered how he has been treated by the powers that be. However, it is not our present intention to discuss that phase of the subject. What we have to do now is to place on record our extreme regret that the colony is about to lose the services of so valuable an officer, especially at such a time as the present when they may be needed almost at any moment. The good that he desired to do, and the reforms it was his wish to introduce into the volunteer service are just now beginning to be felt. Both officers and men have begun to realize that since the advent of Colonel Fox they have vastly improved in every respect as soldiers, so that they have already takeu a wide step towards attaining that knowledge of their duties, and capacity to perform them efficiently which were formerly so conspicuous by their absence in a vast majority ot instances. No greater proof of this could be given that the work done by the forces assembled at the Porirua Encampment at Eastev which was admitted to be by competent judges, the best ever accomplished in the colony. Our readers are doubtless aware that since his arrival in this colony Lieut. Colonel Fox has received well deserved promotion in that distinguished branch of the English Army, the artillery, to which lie belongs, and that fact may be a main reason for his severing his connection with the New Zealand forces. That he will take with him the esteem and respect of every volunteer in the colony, and especially those of this West Coast, we feel assured. That he openly told them their faults every one of them knows, but he also taught how to correct them. The lesson was hard at first, and certainly unpalatable, but those who had the sense to endeavour to profit thereby, are now conscious of the good intentions of the teacher. We say advisedly that the officers and men who have had the benefit of this tutelage, are now more self-respecting and therefore more amenable to military discipline, than perhaps they are themselves conscious of being. The volunteers of the colony will lose a good friend in Colonel Fox. We wish him every success in his future career, and hope he will live long to adorn the service to which he belongs. We also hope he will retain a few kindly memories of New Zealadd. [Since the above was in type we learn from the New Zealand Times that the position is this : — The Colonel has not resigned ; and the Cabinet, at his request, will shortly consider whether they will give him sufficient inducement to do so. We hope that there may be nothing more than a misunderstanding which will, in the interests of the colony which cannot without regret lose the services of so efficient an officer, be removed without difficulty when the matter comes to be discussed.]