THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1882. VOLUNTEER AFFAIRS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2473, 10 March 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1882. VOLUNTEER AFFAIRS.

What is the Volunteer Board about? This question is much more easily ashed than answered, for the public appear to bo carefully debarred from gaining information as to its doings. Certainly Volunteers in general, looking at the constitution of the Board, did not anticipate great things of it, but at least they might have expected that they should be allowed to know from time to time something about its transactions. As yet all the information received has been to the effect that the Board is by no means a happy family. Wo have been told by our own correspondent in Wellington that, immediately on the Board’s assembling, exception was taken by several members to the non-representation of eertaim important volunteer districts, and a proposal was made by the majority of the Board that the Government should be requested to appoint representatives from these districts. This proposal the Chairman flatly refused to entertain, and notwithstanding throats of resignation from certain of the members of the Board, the Chairman appears to have had his way. Then, amongst other things, the Chairman refused to have a short-hand reporter to

take down the evidence, so that, if this information is correct, the public will finally be able to gain but a very imperfect knowledge of what has been going on. Bat not much surprise will probably be felt that the Board’s inherent weakness has at once made itself manifest. It is not made of the right materials, and such being the case, a very small accident is capable 'of making it temporarily collapse. Its members will probably pick themselves together in a short time, and proceed to do the host that a house divided against itself can do; but if they had not much chance of success oven when united, there is but little hope that the outcome of their deliberations now will be of much value.

Bossing from the Board itself, we may proceed to consider some of those matters which it has been called on to discuss, and in connection with them to notice a pamphlet which has just been written by Captain J. Stormont Small, of the Thames district, on the defences of Now Zealand, and the reorganisation of the Volunteers. Captain Small has been a Volunteer since 1860, when ho joined the Victorian Volunteers. In 1863 he joined the first contingent for New Zealand, and was present under General Cameron through the whole of the 'Waikato War, and then was through the East Coast War under Colonel Harrington, Finally he settled at the Thames, was one of the originators of the Volunteer movement there, and is now senior captain Thames Volunteers. Ho has also distinguished himself in the shooting line, having, amongst other feats, taken first position in the New Zealand twenty at the intercolonial rifle match at Melbourne in 1873. All this Captain Small tells us, because he feels it is necessary to hand in credentials to the reader, for, as he drily remarks in the first page, the fact of being a captain, major, or colonel of volunteers should be evidence of considerable knowledge of military matters, but in reality it is not. Captain Small has, it will bo allowed, seen a good deal of real volunteer work, so that his opinion should go for something, and, although he appears to hold somewhat extreme views on some points, yet there is much to be found in his pamphlet of interest and value. We will pass over the part that relates to the naval defences of the colony, and also over what he shys as to the Australian system of procuring higher grade officers from Britain, and will proceed at once to the question of reorganisation. On this subject he makes a number of suggestions, some of value and some impracticable. In any system of reorganisation ho proposes that the force should be enlisted for three years, and he suggests a large number of inducements for men to become volunteers. Indeed, ho goes too far in this direction, for amongst other ideas we find that the volunteers “ should be entitled to preference for Government employ,” and again, “ all Government civil servants and employes of whatever description, including the servants of all county, municipal, and other corporate bodies under Government control, must be volunteers without allowance for diill.” There is a smack of the Continental system about this proposal that will not recommend it to the general public. But when he proposes that volunteers should not bo allowed to transfer themselves from one company to another unless they are leaving the district, and in this ease only to a company belonging to the same branch of the service to which they belong in the district to which they are about to proceed, we fancy that everybody will agree that Captain Small is perfectly right. The system by which a man may be an artilleryman one day and a rifleman the next is not sound. Then with ■regard to the daylight drill. This Captain Small considers a sine qua non. Skirmishing should indeed be the basis of Volunteer drill, whereas some of our Volunteers are simply and entirely “ gaslight soldiers.” The pamphlet suggests that each Volunteer should attend twelve daylight drills of three hours each per annum, to be held monthly, for which he will receive £3. He will also be required to attend at least two night parades each month and one target practice, to be arranged to suit the employment which Volunteers follow, as the rules will allow. It will be observed that Volunteers would he paid by this proposal at the rate of 5s per an afternoon’s work, the Government recognising that it is work as useful to the country in its way as road making. It certainly appears to ns that this is somewhat the proper spirit in which the affair should be treated. The number of volunteers to be paid might be limited according to the power of Government to grant money, but, if an effective force is to be maintained, volunteers must drill by daylight, and at least a neucleus of thoroughly efficient men should be capable of being found at each considerable centre. Capt. Small suggestrs inter alia that volunteers, having completed twenty years of .good character service, shall be entitled to one pound per month pension, and he also wishes to aeo the Armed Constabulary entirely done away with. But, as we stated above, some few of his ideas are not very practical. With regard to examination for commissions, Capt. Small is very much to the point. He says, “ The examination for commissions should depend upon the rank for which the candidate appears, and the practical ability of the candidate to perform the duties which accrue to such rank, as also to tho next in seniority. For instance, if the competition he for a subaltern commission, he (tho candidate) should he required t•> take his position in such a company, and the company be then put through a number of movements from a programme unknown to him.” And so in examinations for higher posts. This is sound common sense. As to the nomination or election principle for the appointment of officers, Captain Small would do away with it altogether, “as it has a tendency to cause efficiency to be sacri diced to popularity, and places the elected under obligations to those most active in procuring such election, and therefore interferes with an officer performing his duties with that strict impartiality which is imperative in correct military discipline. Apart from this, it has the effect of placing gentlemen in command of men who are totally unfit for the position.” We have no space to go further into Captain Stormont Small’s pamphlet. It is very suggestive and sensible in some p&rts, and is well worth perusal by those who take an interest in Volunteer matters.