THE VOLUNTEER FORCE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1234, 16 February 1878, Page 3

THE VOLUNTEER FORCE.

(“ New Zealand Herald.”) We are not inclined to ridicule the idea of a "Volunteer Defence Force, for we think that idea is based on one of the best impulses of our common humanity, hut in view of the absence of any stimulation from the improbability of any emergency demanding real service we consider that a reconstruction of the whole system is not only desirable but absolutely necessary. This reconstruction should be based on the principle of compensating those men who are willing to undergo the training necessary to make them really efficient as their country’s defenders in the day and hour of possible danger. It is a good rule that the youth of a country should bo trained to arms, made familiar with their use, and able intelligently to act effectively in battalions. While there should be freedom to volunteers, conditions conducive to the end in view—an efficient force—should be made imperative, and penalties, legally established, enforced for breaches of these conditions. At present members may leave their corps just when they please. This should not bo so, as it renders any enforcement of discipline out of the question. Let there be a term of enlistment, say for five years, and for that period a member should be held bound to service in whatever part of the colony he may reside. Make the inducement to join this force such that there will be no difficulty in maintaining a small but thoroughly efficient body. Thus the military spirit in the youth of the colony would be fostered and encouraged, and a really effective force seemed upon which the country might rely. Half at least of the present volunteer corps might be disbanded and half the majors and colonels in connection with them dispensed with. And we venture to assert that the cost of maintaining such a body of men fairly remunerated for their services, and enrolled under some such conditions, would not exceed what is now spent to little or no good end. There would likewise be another important advantage—important from a national point of view—and that is, that there would be accumulating from period to period a large body of men who would, if necessary, be available as a reserve, a sort of national militia or landwehr of trained men.