WANGANUI.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 180, 24 June 1864, Page 3

WANGANUI.

MILITIA GRIEVANCES,

The withdrawal of the Militia of this district from actual service is a measure which the diminution of the threatened danger, the arrival of reinforcements, and the exasperated state of public feeling alike render politic. Previously to the step being taken of calling out the militia, no one would have conceived that in such circumstances as the district has been in in the last three weeks and considering the readiness which the Wanganui people have shown to defend the settlement, there could have been anything but the utmost cordiality and good feeling manifested. But what a different state of feeling have the last few days evoked, and how evident has it been that there is something extremely rotten either in the Militia system, or in the means by which it is worked. There has been no part of the actual service needed here at which the men could have grumbled. Two nights a-week, or to be out on parade -as often as might be needed for the purpose of receiving instructions as to his duties, and being kept up in his drill. This was all that was said to be absolutely necessary in the present case. And until the men had learned their duty, or while the troops were withdrawn from town for service in the country, no one would have objected to this. Whence, then, has arisen the bad feeling which has so unmistakeably manifested itself? There are three reasons which are mentioned to account for it.

There has been all along, up to the very last a deplorable want of systematic management. For the first ten days confusion reigned supreme. Men had double their amount of duty to do, and no food to give them strength to do it, and up to the present moment there are men in the Militia who have not yet had a single ration served out to them. We have no hesitation in saying that there must be something wrong in the'system, or a a lamentable incompetency on the part of those who administer it, if a force not exceeding three hundred men cannot be organized, rationed, and appointed to regular duty within three or four days of its being called into being, more especially as in this case, when almost all the men have been in training for the last four years, and some of them out on actual service within that period, and when, in respect to food, the experience of the commissariat ofiicor of the Garrison might have been called into requisition. There is another grievance complained of, and that is, that the system of bullying, swearing at and threatening men, has been carried on, which is against the rules of the military service, and which must be extremely galling to men of any spirit, whatever their social position, and particularly so to men who consider themselves in ordinary life equal to those who thus for the nonce lord it over them. A bully is generally a coward, and thus the men have a double grievance, the present one of having to submit to such treatment, and the prospective one of having incompetent leaders if called into actual warfare. We do not suppose there never has been occasion of exasperation ; ’nit it is a generally received and wellapproved maxim that men who cannot command themselves are incapable of commanding others. The third grievance which we consider worthy of notice is the alleged favoritism in the appointment ot officer’s. It is said that officers have been appointed for other reasons than their personal qualifications frr the office. This is so evidently a matter of opinion that it is more difficult to substantiate and to deal with. It is very obvious, however, that men have been passed over, who in a soldier’s point of view, arc thoroughly competent, while men who bear a different character from’the same point of view have been appointed. Wc have been informed, on what we consider good authority, that [the Government, in appointing officers, look principally to their (social position, believing that such men will be more readily obeyed than men of inferior rank. Other things being equal, this is true. Or when men are only playing at soldiering it does not matter so much and may bo the best system ; for certainly it did not sound well to hear a captain (a tenant) threaten a private (his landlord) with a certain punishment if he did not remit part of his rent, as was the case in a certain troop of Eiiflish Cavalry Volunteers. But where men may bo called into the field the day after their appointment, this system docs not appear a very choice one. In a case like ours efficiency is everything. The Duke of Cambridge, if he cannot manoeuvre his men, is a nonentity. Bill Svkcs, the discharged private, if ho can do so, will he cheerfully obeyed and followed by his company, though some of them may have been educated at Cambridge and be the .-owners of broad acres. We say, then, that if this is the system acted on by the Government—the appointment of officers because of their social position, irrespective of their qualifications—they may expect it to result in disaster and disgrace if there is any serious encounter with the enemy. These are complaints which, with whatever reason or justice, are loudly and universally made. They should be enquired into, and if the grievances are found to be real and not merely fancied they should be redressed. If this is not done, the same ill feeling will break out the next time the Militia are called out for actual service ; and it may go further than it has yet done. This is 4.: r __ n mo muc aui auuii an cuquujr, nun iuui mu nent danger is past and people breathe freely. If the Militia system cannot be carried out without engendering the animosities to which its operation here during the last few days has given rise, then the whole of New Zealand should unite in a demand for its abolition. But let an enquiry be made, and let it be seen whether these results of its operations are due to system or to its maladministration. Such an enquiry is due not less to the public than to the officers of Militia hero againgst whom popular feeling is excited. Native Intelligence.—A number of Maories who arived in town this morning from up the river, report all quiet in that direction at present, thougli from the fact that several of them came down to get fire-arms put in order it seems that they do not regard the continuance of the peace as at all certain. On the Waitotara side, too, all

appears quiet at present,’and wo learn that Horn papara Te Ua, the high priest, wrote to Mr. White a few days since to say ho was willing to treat for peace. Mr. White wrote back declining to hold verbal communication with him, and intimating if he had j!any proposition of a political nature to make to the Government he must do so by letter. Mr. White, however, demanded) the restoration of the half-caste boy, ,'llenry Bates, taken from Mr. Booth at Piperiki, and .with' this demand Te Ua has complied, and the * boy was' brought to town by the native policeman last evening. The boy says that ho was kindly treated by the natives, after the fight at Moutoa he was picked up by a Maori who carried him into the’bush, and thatjhe was then carried by the rebels a considerablejpart of the way to Waitotara. We are told that in reply to questions as to Capt. Lloyd’s head, he states that he knows nothing of its whereabouts, having never, seen it'after it" left Piperiki.— Chronicle , June 15.5