EASTER ENCAMPMENT.

NZ Truth, Issue 92, 23 March 1907, Page 4

EASTER ENCAMPMENT.

ANNUAL AFFAIR ABOLISHED.

Definitions of Discipline Among

the Valiant Volunteers.

The Easter encampment, which ha>- foe many years been looked upon by toluuwoi-s as an annual fixture, has at last been abolished by the Government. Probably Cabinet is beginning to recognise what an utter waste of public money the whole volunteer expenditure is, and the Easter manoeuvres are out out as a primary step towards general economy. Whether this id the case or not, it is high time the route marohing, sham-fighting, skirmishing and Bhiokering which have become so familiar l| at Easter should be for ever doomed to oblivion. People who havo been so unfortunate as to have a volunteer encampment ! set alongside their homes have learned to ' look upon such gatherings with anything ' but neighborly feelings, fo* they know to their sorrow that the volunteer hoodlums, who pose as defenders of the country, do nothing.. but pillage wherever they camp. Of the many hundreds who went to these manoeuvres m the. past very few indeed were imbued with the proper military spirit, but every night on the journey numbers would be filled with the various spirits \to he obtained at the country 'Vbs."\ ■■■■•• _■■ /"" The ordinary drunkard was rabhlra hero m camp, but the maj^ with dejitium I trernens receives no Jion^^, 'aiid is any-:' ! thing but welcome to'the inhabitants of bis -~ tent. A few years back, while the Wellington battalion were route marching through the Wairarapa, a member of the Guards, was taken ' . VERY ILL WITH D.T.'S about 11 o'clock on Saturday night, and it took several of his comrades to keep hi*n cool. The surgeon was requisitioned, and after ineffectually administering sundry showers of water, he was obliged to" nse that deadly drug' morphia m order<vth»fc the battalion might sleep m peace. 'There was a rumor that an individual m ouc of the other companies was also given morphia the same night, so that two cases of tha kind was not a bad record. Picture yourself dossing m a tent with something of . tha kind. Discipline is .practically unknown i v N. Z . volunteering, and when one comes to look at the officers, this is easily understood. Men do nob give thoir spare tinia to ,be bustled and bounced about by a parcel of pups and chuckle-headed galoots who havo scarcely brains enough to pass the officprB 1 examination, who aro absolutely devoid of tact and gumption, and who join"' the volunteers, either because they imagine they will look swagger m uniform or else to have a ' decent excuse, to. get free of their wives now and again for a night out. Jnst how inuoh discipline really exists may bo ■ gauged from- one or tyro things which happened oh the Levin-Foxton inarch a couple of years ago. Oil the Friday morn- ' ing at Levin one of tho men (a lnoinber of the Guards again) badiy wanted to FIGHT THE TBANSPORT OFFICER, a full-blown captaiu. The latter had all sorts of abuse hurled at him, and Went very pale under it, . but managed to oscape a punch, and, marvellous to relate, tho pugnacious private got off with nothing more than a reprimand, if he got that. At all events he flourished In tho ranks of the Guards for a long time after, that occurrence. Then again on tho homeward train journey from Foston, some of the men kept up a regular fusillade with blank cartridge tUI the train was very. close to Palmer st on. This was probably to express their indigation at being brought homo m sheep, trucks m the small hours of a frosty morning. * / Anyone who remembers this particular parade of the Wellington, battalion will know that the men have not missed much by the ' abandonment of this year's manoeuvres. On completion of the first day's march that year, the men ■•" wero encamped at a place called Porotawa, and the -water supply for something like four hundred "braves " consisted of two or three ' welli. (not more). For about five rninujtes after the camp had beeu pitched, the -water lasted very well, but that only served to wash about one-third of tho men, and the rest had to go short. The wells had enough water next morning for a cup of tea all round, but you can imagine that the fiva " good " wells at Himitangi would this year be severely taxed by somethiug like one" thousand men. The same night referred to at Porotawa there was something like A FAMINE OF MEAT and plum pudding, and a procession . of about twenty volunteers marched through the lines singing that familiar pong "Starving," much to the discomfiture of the Colonel and the Major. Altogether " high jinks " were played on that trip, and the manoeuvres were not strictly military. Other incidents may be mentioned to show that the Ist Wellington Battalion is not immune from mutinous hoodlumisin, but perhaps enough has been said. The ddlibato details of what happened to -a prostitute m the guard tent at Newtown Park, oil one occasion could not be given without, overstepping the bounds of modesty, nod the ordinary innocent individual would scarcely, oredit that an officer of the local TCnginfierti paraded the main street of. Cailr-tott owed with a uniform tunic and mufti ; trousers, • The public will readily understand from what has been said that th» whole lot of the military business is au absolute farce, and will recognise that the abandonment of these moon-calf manoeuvres ib a step 'in the right direction. And when they hear "tho officer commanding the Wellington Battalion spouting to the men and hoping they will "maintain the high i reputation of tha Wellington volunteers, it will b« conceived what clap-trap such an, address is. Certainly the men have maintained their reputation m the past, but therein lies a tale.