OUR VOLUNTEERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 43, 21 February 1870, Page 2

OUR VOLUNTEERS.

To THE EDITOB OP THE NELSON EVENING MAIL". Sir — I am very glad to find that you have of late been devoting your attention to our volunteer system, the more so that you evidently handle the subject with the confidence of oue who thoroughly understands what he is writing about. But although there is much in your leader of Saturday of which I thoroughly approve, I cannot altogether agree with you as to the cause of the manifest falling off which has taken place in the numbers and efficiency of our once most respectable force. You attribute it to the fact that those who joined at a time when volunteering was all the rage have gradually tired of their work as the novelty wore off, whereas I am more disposed to assert that the decline aud fall of volunteering is the result of atrophy — that the public aud the legislature have not supplied it with that nourishment which is necessary to its existence, and that consequently it is gradually but surely being starved to death. The public are too much in the habit of leaving whatever work there is to be done to a few energetic individuals— our Fire Brigade is another instance of this — and without giving them the slightest countenance either by rendering pecuniary assistance or by encouragement, iv the shape of showing an interest in their proceedings, they expect them to undertake and carry through certain duties in the execution of which the whole body politic is, directly or indirectly, interested, and, in fact, in which every man ought to take part. Then again, there is the reduction of the bonus to the volunteers by our colonial Parliament, and the doing away with it altogether by our Provincial legislature which I canuot help viewin 0 * as one of those numerous instances of penny wisdom, which is so marked a feature of the short sighted policy of many of our representatives and statesmen. There is one portion of our volunteer system to which you have not yet alluded, but on which I trust we may yet hear from y 0U — I refer to the election of officers by the men whom they are to command. This appears to me to be open to very grave objections, and some years experience in a volunteer corps has almost convinced me that until such a practice is abolished, there will always be an absence of that strict discipline which is so absolutely essential to the well-being of any military body. The interest I take in volunteering must be my excuse for troubling you with this letter. I am, &2., Fall In.

Flax: Manufacture is soon to be added to the local industries of the West Coast. A block of land has beeu taken up in the neighborhood of the Wairaangaai o, a company formed, and the machinery will soon be erected. The flax is said to be of a very superior quality aud extensively distributed. The Charleston Herald reports that — " A shocking accident took place at Alexandra last week. A sluicer, named Thos. Geddi?s was employed at one of the bank claims removiug stones from the bottom of the face, wheu a heavy boulder got detached and crushed his head into a jelly against a projecting rock. The head was so severely lacerated that it had to be picked up piecemeal and tied up in a handkerchief. It was reported in Charleston last •week tbat a wreck was lying on the beach near the Totara River. A constable was at once despatched, and on arriving at the spot he found a side and part of the stern, having the appearance of being a portion of a wooden steamer of about 30 tons burthen. No name could be traced on it, nor was there anything to indicate whence it came, or under what circumstances it was wrecked. An " indignation meeting" has been held at Greymouth, at which a protest was made against the present system of distributing the revenue of the county, alleged to be unfair to the Grey district. The Carandinis are attracting only moderate houses at St. George's Hall, Dunedin, while Thatcher has generally a crowd to hear his local songs in the Masonic Hall.

The honorarium question has been settled in the Westland County Council. Members residing five miles beyond Hokitika are to receive fifty pounds a session ; members inside this distance, twenty-five pounds a session. Some extraordinary opinions on the subject wero elicited duriug the discussion. A brick windmill, having six floors, and a tower sixty feet high is about to be erected at Timaru, Canterbury. We {Morning Advertiser) have learned upon excellent authority that there is every probability of the Seat of Government, being, ere very long, removed from Wellington to its pristine aud proper place of abode, Auckland. As the whole business of the Native aud Defence Departments naturally centres in Auckland those departments have already been shifted to here, so far as a majority of clerks, officials, &c, are concerned, and wa believe that many months will not elapse before the change will become total. The next step will be the alteration of the place of sitting of the G-enernal Assembly, and then will be finally accomplished the destination of a revolution in our administration which should never have taken place. At about noon yesterday, two police constables were in charge of a deserter from one of the ships of the "Flying Squadron, whom they were taking up the wharf to deliver up to his captain. They managed to get their prisoner into the boat and pushed off from the landing-steps. Once again on the water Jack felt quite at home, and to the astouishment of the constables he sprang overboard, and struck out for the wharf. It happened, however, that a "friendly native" or rather half-caste — filled with feelings of loyalty, and evidently regarding the sailor as " a man and a brother," opened his arms and folded the escaping man in a brotherly embrace. The police then came up and secured him, and took him on board. — Morning Advertiser. Upwakds of eighty men deserted from the Flying Squadron whilst the ships were lying at Auckland, not one of whom has been recaptured. One of the most determined cases, says the Herald, occurred on Thursday eveuing last, when eleven men ! belouging to the Phoebe left her Majesty's service, without troubling themselves to first ask for leave. Quickly laying out on the lower boom, they dropped iuto one of the ship's boats and pushed off. The sentry fired several shots at them, but without success, and the men effected their escape. The cutter has been recovered, but the* men have not yet turned "P. .. — _