CORRESPONDENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2371, 11 December 1908, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Correspondence on public matters is welcomed at all times, but it must be distinctly understood that this iouinal is in no way associated with the opinions .of its correspondonts.]

OUR CADETS. [.To the Editor.] Sir, —It seems to me that our cadets do not get enough practice at the butts., or we would have more of the stamp of Color-Sergeant Friar, of Onohuuga ; if the four best shots in the school could only score 63 out of a possible of 140, with 7 shots each at 200yds. (a bull's-eye scoring 5) as reported in your account of the fieldday here last Saturday I think the powers that be should pay more attention to Lord Robert’s'injunction ‘'Teach the lads to shoot,” than to tramping over the country, tying themselves up in knots and potting their own comrades or being mowed down by the enemy. ' There is another matter to which I would call ■attention and hope that what I say will be .accepted in the spirit in which it is written. Our cadets are. no doubt, well and efficiently drilled on their respective parade grounds, but as soon as they are off them they seem to have forgotten their lessons. A number of lads passed my bouse on Saturday and nearly every one swung his arms like a pendulum, and then when three or four walked abreast they never dreamed of keep-. ing step. At a' field-day here two or three years ago I heard a somewhat unique command from a youthful sergeant in command of a squad which was going through a gate like a flock of sheep, “Here,, you blokes, come back! That’s not tlie wav!” I hope the non-coms, havo improved since.—Yours eto. F. C. LEGGETT. Ormond, December 9., 1908.