VOLUNTEERING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 47, 25 February 1870, Page 2

VOLUNTEERING.

To the Editor op the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir — I am glad to see in your paper articles and letters on the decline of the volunteering spirit in this place. Will you allow me to point out one circumstance, •which I think has a great deal to do with the falling off in numbers of the volunteers and also with the falling off of the attendance of those -whose names still remain on the roll. I mean the want of a drill-shed. I believe that the long discontinuance of drill through the winter months is ruinous to the spirit of the company. Men have time to lose interest in the thing, and the first winter gives a check to the smartness and dawning esprit de corps of the company from which it never quite recovers. It is true the Artillery company did endeavor to avoid this by obtaining the use of the Oddfellows' Hall to drill in at night. But it was coupled with the condition (unavoidably submitted to as a matter of company finance) that . the'Hall could only be so used when not

wanted for any theatrical or other performers, and this proved fatal. iC We hid in a wall and we must take the consekvences;" and with that perversity -which seems to be one of the i( consekvences," so sure as drill night came round, round came some " troupe " starring it from Melbourne, from Auckland, or where not, and the company had to give way to the "troupe." Men grew disgusted with the uncertainty and frequent postponements of drill, and this effort to secure a place for drill, turned ont of little use. Volunteers are but men, and men as a rule take interest in doing a thing only when they do it well or have the hope of doing it well close before them. Now, were a drill-shed of sufficient size provided, tl e instruction begun, in the summer might be carried on through the winter, and the men brought up to an attractive degree of smartness, and taught a variety of movements, which last is a raoj>t essential point if you want a smart willing company. Men get disgusted with the recurrence of the same few elementary movements, and want variety. But if they attend only once a week, weather permitting, for only the summer half of the year, it is impossible to give it them ; time fails. And when once the attendance falls off, you get into a " vicious circle." Men don't attend because there's no variety, and there's no variety because men don't attend in sufficient numbers to render it possible for the drill-instrnctor to instruct them in some of the most useful and most ingenious evolutions. Now it is impossible for the companies to provide themselves with a drill-shed out of the ■diminished grant of the General Government, which is not even enough for uniforms. But surely if the Provincial Government will not give volunteers a money -grant, they might build •a drill- shed, which might also serve to shelter the guns now squeezed in alongside the Fire Brigade apparatus, at some risk to those and slighter built carriages, while the limbers stand outside, year in, year out, blistering and warping in the sun. And the building a drill-shed would at least have this advantage in an economical point ■of view over paying a money-grant to tha volunteers, that should the day come that it be no longer needed as a drill- shed, there at least is the shed, an asset of the public, a thing which may --still be turned to other useful purposes. I am, &c , Volunteer. "Nelson, February 24, 1870. Sporting. — The following items ave from turf gossip in the Australasian of Feb. 5 : — lt is supposed we shall have the ■pleasure of Knottingley's company in the next Melbourne Cup ; he seems to be a good horse, and his running with Peeress in the Christchurch Plate, -when he gave her 201b, and a beating, is some guide as to his capabilities. Manuka has got over the firing arid blistering, and he seems now to walk as sound as a bell, whatever lie may do by-and-by, when he is put into fast work. Otago Whiskey has now become an article of commerce, and it is said to compare favorably with the imported spirit. The Southern Cross says : — "A connoisseur, tasting the New Zealand whiskey, and comparing it with some of the Islay and Campbletbwn malt spirits, imported in wood or bottle, would pronounce the former to be somewhat fiery. That, however, •proves nothiug against the New Zealand •spirits. The whiskey is a little fiery, simply because it is new, but after being kept a short time it will acquire all the •desiderated -qualities of the more mature imported article. To our Scotch friends, v?ho enjoy a glass of " toddy," the New Zealand whiskey can safely be recommended. It has been found that this ■whiskey can be sold in Dunedin at 7s 6d per gallon in bond, which, with 6s of duty added, will make the wholesale price there 18s 6d per gallon. Freight and other •charges willbriug this up to 15s per gallon. At this price, we think the spirit should be able to compete fairly in the market with the imported article. Of course, as the business of distillation becomes more firmly established in New Zealand, and a larger amount of barley is grown for malting purposes, the cost of production will naturally be lessened." An Anglo-Asiatic velocipedestrian, to avoid the mid-day heat, has been exercising near Bombay at night, carrying a lantern ; the result of which performance is that the Hindoo population take the phenomenon as a physical manifestation of their god Vishnu on a fiery celestial wheel, and prostrate themselves in the dust whenever he is seen approaching.