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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1205, 8 June 1872, Page 3

At the lunch held at Wanganui on the Quevu'a Birthday, after the launch of the T. B. Taylor, Captain Yorke complained that vessels built in Wanganui had to be registered in Wellington, which got the credit in strange ports of owing the vessels registered there, as by that means " Wellington" had to be painted on a Wanganui built; vessel's sea-sign. • When Colonel Brett's mythical privateer, about which he recently spoke at Christ* charcli, arrives under the command of some nineteenth century Paul Jones, we ought to "be prepared to give him a warm reception. If we may jndge from the New Zealand Army lost, an unpretending bat instructive brochure quietly launched upon an unsuspecting pnblio last March, we must be in possession of a paper army, quite equal to any emergency. If the number of men is in anything Bke just proportion to the quota of officers, New Zealand must be the proprietor of quite a colossal army of citizen soldiers. The raw militia absorbs 3 colonels, 15 lieutenantcolonels, 47 majors, 198 captains, 136 lientenants, 117 ensigns, 21 surgeons, 10 as-sisUnt-Burgeons, and 4 quartermasters, in all, 651 officers— a regiment by themselves. In addition to this posse of lame, halt, and blind, there are 279 volunteer officers, and 79 vacancies remaining to be filled up, v making 358. Adding to these 30 officers of {he Armed Constabulary, we arrive at the respectable grand total of 939 "officers and gentlemen" whose names are immortalised in the Colonial Hart. If we may offer a suggestion to the distinguished military authorities who role the destinies of this noble army of captains, we would recommend a searching investigation into this list. If 198 captains require 31 surgeons, how many lieutenant-colonels are necessary tor 186 lieutenants ?— a rule-of-three sum which ffiU tax even Mr Stevens' mathematical ability.