THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1882. VOLUNTEER DISCIPLINE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2507, 20 April 1882, Page 3

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1882. VOLUNTEER DISCIPLINE.

A Volunteer in full uniform, with his head stuck through a play bill and a long pipo iu his mouth, is a curious object. Ha serves to point a moral, if be cannot adorn a tale. And certainly there was no want of lessons such as that inculcated by such a sight during the late gathering of Volunteers on the occasion of the opening of the Exhibition. Take one instance out of any number that might be quoted. A body of our gallant defenders, in full military attire, might have been seen, on the day following tho opening, proceeding down Colombo street, in a sort of procession. They held Japanese umbrellas over their heads, and the inevitable long pipes were stuck in their manly mouths. The larger proportion of the masqueraders were playing on tin whistles and other childish instruments, while the rear was brought up by one or two warriors drumming on kerosene tins. In whose charge had these /men come up to Christchurch ? Nobody seemed to know or care. They were apparently looked upon in the same light as are Jack Tars, when, after a long voyage, they have a run ashore and let off the animal spirits accumulated through so many months of confinement on board ship. It is needless to say that if the cesthetical soldiers alluded to above met an officer they took not the slightest notice of him, and it is also necessary to say, that the officers on their part took not the slightest notice of the soldiers. It never apparently struck tho officers who happened to see this and a number of other similar exhibitions that their duty was to procure a guard and run the roysterers into the guard-house for misbehaviour. Indeed, the state of discipline in which the Volunteers who wore in Christchurch last week were evidently in was lamentably lax. If the same young men had come up into this city as civilians, probably they would not have paraded tho streets decked out like mountebanks. Tho position in reality amounts to this—that these men absolutely seized on the time when they were wearing the Queen’s uniform to do that which they would no doubt have shrunk from doing had they been in plain clothes. They evidently held that the Queen’s uniform gave them privileges, but in what direction P Why, in the direction of making fools of themselves. They apparently had not the slightest compunclion in degrading their cloth. But was all this entirely their fault? We think not. The main blame should fall on the officers who allowed such proceedings to take place without taking the slightest notice of them. Officers are chosen by the men because they are supposed to possess a superior knowledge of the duties of a aoldier. And yet here they allow their men to do things which would never for an instant be passed over in any well-disciplined force. It is not to the credit of the officers that they are either so ignorant, so careless, or so wanting in grip over their men, that they take no steps towards showing tho more rowdy or thoughtless that there are in good truth certain obligations attaching to the wearing of the Queen’s uniform. Of course there are numbers of Volunteers who always behave in an altogether exemplary manner, and it certainly must be hard on these men that they should see the uniform they wear disgraced by freaks which a well-conducted schoolboy would not think of indulging in. They, at all events, will feel little inclined to pass over lightly the conduct of their officers iu turning a blind eye when they come across such scenes. An officer is in every way responsible for the conduct of the men under him. He should know well enough that his first duty is to maintain discipline, and bo should know that without discipline the character and the efficiency of the body of men in bis charge are seriously impaired. The respect that should be paid to officers is certainly not kept up as it ought to be. During the late muster tho most common thing in the world was to see a Volunteer in uniform passing an officer with a pipo in his mouth! An officer would pass a sentry, and the sentry would not salute ! If tho officer drew the attention of the sentry to this breach of etiquette, the latter would probably say that he had never received any instructions to do so. And this probably was the fact. In this case, as iu others, tho root of the fault lay with the officers. As for Volunteers saluting tho officers in uniform belonging to H.M. Navy whom they may chance to meet, tho idea never seems to enter their heads. They are apparently not aware that tho various branches of tho service are part of one large whole, and that it should be their pride to recognise this. Tho Volunteer service of New Zealand is an integral part of tho military and naval organization of the British Empire, and it should be a pleasure to our Volunteers to kuit tho bonds that unite the various branches together as tightly as possible.

But witk regard to the general question of the want of discipline amongst our force, it may bo answered by some that when the Volunteers are wanted for service they are well behaved enough, and the conduct of those that went up to Parihaka will bo pointed to with pride. The men that took part in that bloodless campaign appear to have been very good boys, but that is hardly to the point. The expedition to Parihaka was no strain on the service. There were difficulties to be grappled with, but they were not very large. There was no practical opposition, and altogether the affair was a fair weather business. It is in times when all does not go smoothly that discipline begins to tell. It is like training in athletic exorcises. A guerrilla force can act admirably when the board is clear before it ; but, when difficulties crowd np, the difference between snob a force and a well disciplined one is at once made manifest. "Wo do not moan to say that if our Volunteers had had a real campaign to go through at Parihaka, they would not

have behaved well; but we do say this, that in such a case every ounce of discipline they possessed would have been of practical service to them, and that to bring that expedition as an argument against a stricter diocipline than at present exists in the Volunteer service is altogether misleading. Should our local forces unfortunately bo wanted to act against a well disciplined and efficient enemy, it is very certain that any flaw in our disciplinary arrangements would soon make itself known. Above everything would any want of grip by the officers over the men be severely felt. We have no wish to see any such severe system as that adopted in the Prussian army in force here. That would be ridiculous. But there are limits even to a mild discipline, and it seems to us that these are too frequently overstepped by New Zealand volunteers.