THE COMMANDANT AND THE COMMON HERD. The Volunteers' Grievance.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 52, 29 June 1901, Page 8

THE COMMANDANT AND THE COMMON HERD. The Volunteers' Grievance.

IMMENSE enthusiasm has prevailed during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York to New Zealand, and no class of the community has manifested greater enthusiasm than the volunteers of the colony. Without hope of reward, from purely patriotic motives, and at no small personal loss, they freely gave their services to the country, and enhanced the success of the festivities. From what we were able to observe, the volunteers in camp at Newtown Park endured hardships almost as great as their comrades in the field. * * * Unfortunately for them, the arrangements were undeniably bad, the weather inclement, and that most important essential, the commissariat, inefficient. As the public know, the men paraded their grievances in objective form, the object being a portion of the badly cooked rations served out to them as food. That action called down the anathema of the Commandant on the heads of the four men who had illustrated their comrades' grievances by their action. The Commandant had his redress ; he could have restored discipline or punished insubordination by more dignified methods than calling the men who had offended " infernal cowards " and "infernal curs," and so forth. Apparently the alleged cowardice of the men v> as in their refusal to attack the food which was served up for their consumption. * * ♦ Perhaps in no other country do volunteers inconvenience themselves to such an extent as in New Zealand, and for men, many of whom have established a reputation for bravery in the field, to be addressed in the offensive and insulting style adopted by the Commandant, is by no means an incentive to volunteeung. The undignified behaviour of Colonel Penton, whose experience of colonials should have given him more tact and discernment m dealing with them, calls for censure. The breach of discipline was the result of the apathy of the Commissariat Department. We are aware that in all military establishments it is the duty of the orderly officer for each ensuing day to examine the food, determine if it is correct in quantity, of good quality, and well cooked. He asks the bteieotyped question, "Any complaints?" and it is his duty to lecfcify any deficiency of quantity or quality, and to see the cooks are competent men. Was this done ?

The men had complained preMously, and no notice being taken of their complaints, they adopted the method of ventilating their grievance by the "disgraceful scene" the Commandant was so incensed at. Colonel Penton implies that it is without a precedent in the Colonies. If this is so, we are sorry that the colonial volunteer is a meeker product than his Imperial brother. An English precedent is one m which a troop of Lancers, headed by their troop Sergeant-major as " chaplain," solemnly buried an uneatable "duff." Result, court-martial. For whom ? — the Lieut. -quartermaster, Quartermastersergeant, and Sergeant-cook. Not a single man of the troop was on the " sheet." The apathy of the orderly officers had been the cause, and while breaking discipline the men took the only other method of obtaining redress for their wrongs. ♦ • * The New Zealand volunteer is not a regular soldier. Nor is he likely to be disciplined by Colonel Penton or any other Imperial officer into the tameness of being talked at as if he were a mere flunkey. It is lamentable that a man who has the nominal control of the New Zealand forces could find no better name for men whose fellow volunteers have shown no cowardice in Africa than " curs " and "cowards," and could disco\er no better method of dealing with a breach of discipline than the very intemperate and undignified one he adopted.

ly perfect is shared by every citizen, and when he can cross the road with safety, ride on a car without sustaining galvanic shocks, obtain pressure of water sufficient to extinguish his burning house, then only will the municipal idea really strike him * * * As matters now stand, the life of the Wellington resident is not cntnely a happy one Rather cramped, with fewer advantages than most towns, he is, notwithstanding, a fairly cheeiful being He would be more cheerful still if the municipally perfect theory were put m operation The putting into practice of the theory is a consummation the Wellington citizens are anticipating, and at this paiticular time, when the pressure occasioned by the Royal visit is lifted, we think it is fitting to lemind the authorities of their ambitions Municipal perfection is a large order, but we hope the ambition of the Chief Magistrate and the City Council is a genuine one