The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, MARCH 27, 1901. THE MILITARY SPIRIT.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 71, 27 March 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, MARCH 27, 1901. THE MILITARY SPIRIT.

There has been a good deal of discussion throughout the colony lately as to the change that has come over the scene in regard to the sending away of contingents. When the last batch of men left Gisborne there was uo band and only a faint cheer. That characteristic has been evident throughout the colony. “ The second draft of the Seventh Contingent (says the Times) was allowed to leave Christchurch almost without a' cheer. Yet theso men are geing to more thankless, and perhaps more arduous, work than that which fell to the lot of the troopers at whose departure we made so great a display a year ago. They know, at least, what is before them. They have no prospect of holiday, for trekking and fighting will fill all their days with labor and their nights with discomfort. Yet who speaks now of ‘ comforts for the contingents ? ’ We hope that when the bulk of the men now at the front return to the colony the people will awake from this indifference. If we have not a ‘ God be with you ’ for the departing recruit, let us at least have a ‘welcome home’ for the exhausted veteran.”

In dealing further with the subject the Times states :—“ We do not want to see an essentially domestic community like that of New Zealand carried away by the military spirit ; but so long as men are needed in South Africa it is our bounden duty to provide our share. This is the feeling at the bottom of Mr Seddon’s rather extravagant utterances on the subject. Some of his critics, we know, declare that he will shortly have the whole male population of the colony under arms, but there need be no fear on that score. He cannot go further than public opinion will allow, and there is plenty of evidence already of a desire on the part of the people to return to the ways of peace.” The fact is that the continual drain of young men from the.colonies is not to be viewed with feelings of satisfaction. It was all very well when they were really needed, but now that the war is drawing to a close, it can hardly be expected that the people of the colony will continue to be enthusiastic at the sending away of so many young men.