DR FINDLAY ON VOLUNTEERING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 420, 6 August 1908, Page 2

DR FINDLAY ON VOLUNTEERING.

At the annual reunion of the Wellington Civil Service Rifles, Honorary Captain the Hon. Dr. Findlay, said that they in New Zealand were very apt to forget the true function of the volunteers. They had not heard the blast of war in their ears—they did not know what war was. Because of that there bad become evident a tendency to under-estimate the true purpose and value of the volunteer force. There were many—far too many —young men who were content to stand on the footpath, and watch, with a sneer on their laces, the volunteers go by, and he could not avoid the leeling that the proper acknowledgment of such sneers was a good, firm, and wellplaced kick for the sneerer. (Applause.) They had not required, so far, to face the question of compulsory military training, continued Dr Findlay, but the serious consideration of this question must, he felt, become more expedient as indifference to national defence grew. The throes, the trials, and the very death struggles of the older countries —of their own Mother Country—seemed very far distant, and it seemed a pity to mention the idea of compulsory training in such a country as theirs the Mother Country’s youngest child, in fact. England had steadily set her face against conscription. She had preferred to foster the volunteer spirit, and as a result there was to be found in that country the finest volunteer force in the world. New Zealand was instinct with the traditions of the Empire in which she belonged, and it would be a disgrace to her young men if the question of compulsorytrainiug had ever to be faced. What they had to do, continued the speaker, was to encourage the volunteer. With the proper sort of encouragement they need not have no fear of volunteering. It was the duty of the Government, he asserted, to see that they were encouraged, by making their path easier, their rewards greater, and their distinction higher. The public mind must be educated to the belief that

voluntary military service was wortbv of the highest acclaim, not the sneers of the bystanders. The finest defence a country could have was a corps of good rifle shots. Good rifle-shooting made not only for military efficiency but good citizenship, for to be efficient with the rifle a man must live temperately.