Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, SEPT. 18, 1902. Cadets.

Manawatu Herald, 13 September 1902, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, SEPT. 18, 1902. Cadets.

The information received from the Defence Office makes it pretty certain that the services of the cadets, who have, through Mr Hamer, offered their services, will be accepted. We are very glad ifcis so as we see the

very essence of volunteering in these corps of lads. The old, old, maxim of “ bring up a child in the way he should go," is a very strong argument in favour of the establishment of Cadet Corps. The Government have encouraged the drilling of school boys, and it has been a very pleasing sight to see how well these lads iijj-wer to the word of command and how interested they appear in then drill. Lads leave the school between their 13th or loth year of age and '.re not acceptable as recruits to tlr Lflult companies of volunteers unu they have attained their eighteenth year, and thus three to five years occurs during which their knowledge of drill and interest in it may be lost, a disadvantage to the colony. If colonists believe in. being prepared for war, which the events of the past tew years must have taught them U is- advisable to be, volunteering must be encouraged to secure any advantage from the movement. We need men who can move in masses at the word of command, and who can shoot ■tr,light, and ba ready in numbers, sot roll numbers, to take their part in the defence of the colony. Citizens of every country in the world are called upon to do their share in 1 dsnee, but they have to do it by law, instead freely as Englishmen over the world do it. What the colony wants are men ready and able to do what is needed, for we must, at all hazards avoid the terrible misfortune that befel the lata Napoleon 111 who lost his Empire by trusting to the official reports on the state of his army, which went so far as to state that- -o v en the buttons on the gaiters were all there. For us to say we have so many volunteers on the oil would be as misleading, we need real volunteers not paper men, and as vacancies must frequently occur in •he volunteer companies, the country will bo as strong after their leaving as before if the company have a welldrilled cadet corps to fall back upon to fill their ranks up with. Nothing m small companies, is more discouraging than the appearance of members of the awkward squads who have to be paraded with drilled men so as to fill up the ranks. No men should so heartily appreciate the formation of a cadet corps as members of present volunteer companies There is the one difficulty facing the promoter of the proposed Cadet corps, which faces many another energetic mover in public matters—the shortness of cash. It is one of those things which the excellent Lord Dundreary used to say “no fellah can understand ” why the Government are so illeberal to the Cadet corps, since they have recognised the value and importance of the volunteer movement. They grudge a sum for capitation which should be larger for "rowing lads than for the adults. The difficulties as to uniforms, plain as they can be made, are great, as a capitation of five shillings a year is truly ridiculous. A. body of men or boys need a uniform, both to raise their own and the public’s interest in them, and to make it tangible to the members that they belong to an institution, which in turn creates an d.s \p(U da corps. It is evident if the miblic agree with the adviseabloncss of having a cadet corps, about which on a consideration of the advantages such a corps would confer on the young men of the place, giving them, as it would, some useful work and amusement, there should not ba two opinions, they will have to act and subscribe in some way to its funds. Every argument, and there are many, wh ch can be used for the encouragement of athletics, can be used as to f nmation of cadet corps, and we believe the people here will appreciate such a movement, and in their usual liberal manner see that the necessary monetary assistance is forthcoming.