Volunteer Forces.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 6, 7 July 1897, Page 2

Volunteer Forces.

Colouel Pole Penton has made known ' to tho F Battery at Napier the dis ! couraging intelligence that Government , is not prepared to furnish it with the . guns nectssary to the carrying on effi. ciently of its work as an artillery corps Why this decision has been arrived at ;t , would (says tbe Times) be difficult in . deed for anyone but tho Minister of Defence to explain. The F Battery is I one of tbe smartest corps in New Zealand. . Officers and men have displayed soldierly ■ qualities, and tbeir work has always been marked by intelligence. The cost L of furnishing them with Nordenfeldts need not have deterred the Government from continuing tbe battery in an efficient , state. As a portion of tbe defence force of the colony the Napier artillerymen s could have been effectively used, either . iv tbeir own garrison or as a support to the Wellington forces. A few hours would have sufficed to have summoned , them to any point south or north where j their aid would bave been acceptable. , To those who know the extent of the j work done by the F Battery, and also its excellence, the conduct of the Governf ment in denying it gnus and in forcing , it to become a rifle corps or to disband \ is unaccountable. No wonder the Volun- ! teers of the colony are becoming thorl onghly disgusted witb tbe treatment c they receive.