THE DEFENCE FORCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 14

THE DEFENCE FORCES.

By Skntbt.

The services of the St. Andrew's Defence itifle Club, with headquarters at St. Andrews, have been accepted.

The Dunedin City Guards held a full -dress parade on Monday, 24th ult. There was a muster of 36. The march out through the principal streets was less conspicuous than is usually the case, there being no band -with the company.

The Port Chalmers, Navals ex-Members Club have presented "the company with a Bplendid pair of field glasses, which are being shot for on the company's range. The non-commissioned officers' class in connection with No. 1 Battalion was ■concluded on the 24th with instruction in practical guard mounting and relieving, followed by a short lecture upon outposts. Before dispersing, non-coms, took the opportunity of recording their appreciation of the instruction they had received at the hands of Stoaff Sergeant-major Bishop, a good inBight into the new work having been gained under his painstaking direction. Staff Sergeant-major Bishop briefly acknowledged the remarks. Captain~and Adjutant Barclay was present and in an 'informal way bade good-bye to the non-coms, present. Sergt. Melville, on behalf of the non-coms, of the battalion, referred .to Captain Barclay's zeal in military matters, and wished him prosperity and a continued military service in his new sphere.

The co-operation of field telegraph engineers with a field battery, as witnessed at fiampden recently when a detachment of the Dunedin Engineers assisted at the B Battery's annual firing, has brought forth an expression of approval from Captain Richardson, Chief Instructor of Artillery. " The co-operation of -the two arms would be very necessary in war. and -the initiation of their co-operation at the last practice ought to benefit both corps." He also adds: — "Owing to the difficult targets aoid difficulty of observation the Battery would have been unable to do firstrclaes shooting had it not been assisted by flank observers, which -the field telephone rendered possible. I have not been able to get the same results in other districts whose field telephones have not been used, and I would be glad if those corps that willingly assist, Bs the Dunedin Engineers did, could be shanked accordingly."

The comments of Lieutenant Digby-Smith, who judged the entrenchment test in connection with No. 1 Battalion shield competition, are as follow: — "The Green Island, Rifles mode a very good start, forming on t© irork and mating ready to dig in a first olaas manner, their ciief mistake being in the pacing out of the tasks, which were much too big, and had' to be corrected! before work could begin. In the other two companies, the half-company commander teemed to me to have come without having pad any practice, and were in consequence >ry much at a. Los- when told to take com-

mand and form on the work. etc. The finished work of the City Guards was really excellent, and de&er\es special mention, there being only two very -slight faults, which I pointed out to the O.C. company. The other two companies both made their parapet too high, and in the case of the Wakari Rifles the parapet was ©o high as to make the trench practically useless, as a man could not fire over it. The Green Island Rifles also neglected to conceal their parapet, as is \ery necessary. The work was on the whole very satisfactory, and in each case the digging was completed well under the time allowed."

The bazaa- in connection with the Port Chalmers Navale will be opened on April 1. Meetings arc being held weekly by the Ladies' and Gentlemen's Committees, and business is good. A number of boys and girls are learning the Maypole Dance, and an attractive performance is promised. The varied excitements common to functions of the kind — shooting gallery, bran tub, Aunt Sally, guessing competitions, and cookery competitions — will be provided, and a musi cal programme is being? prepared for each evening.

The proposal to run No. 1 Battalion O.R.V. more on the lines of British battalions, in which the general affairs, including the finances, of the various companies, are administered by the battalion staff, was discussed by -officers on Tuesday, the 25th. Th« scheme involves a, very considerable change and the adjustment of a great amount of detail, and there was no disposition to hurriedly resolve upon the adoption of the proposal. A motion -to the effect that it was desirable the step should bo taken was rejected in favour of an amendment that a sub-committee go into the question and report at a subsequent meeting. Lieutenant - colonel Stoneham, Captains Douglas, Dempster, Washer, and M'Ara form the committee.

According to a North Otago paper, the remaining officer (Lieutenant E. Whyte) of the Waitaki Mounted Rifles an-d Captain A. G. Mahan have decided to relinquish their commissions. The resignations are 6O far not to hand. Any circumstances occasioning unpleasantness between the staff and the Volunteers and resulting in the resignation of useful iren is regrettable. All are striving for one end: the effective defence- of country. It is inevitable that <he orders and acts of a oommandirLg officer will not always be to the satisfaction of the Volunteer, even as, on the ether hand, ihe methods of the Volunteer will not always commend themselves to the O.C. It is the same in commercial establishments and everywhere else But there can only be one O.C, and if the first principle of military service — discipline — is to be respected, hi 6 orders, whether or not to the exact taste, must be obeyed, constitutional methods being adopted to obtain redress if necessary. Concerning the merits of the Oamaru case, there is nothing to fay here, as nothing official is known by the writer. But there is one obvious aspect of the affair which all loyal Volunteers must deprecate, and that is the way the pre«s has been made use of in the matter. Quito recently an order issund throughout the

whole of the district by the O.C district wa3 publicly ridiculed in an Oamaru paper liater there was publisred the statement that a prominent officer had resigned, and that there was a possibility of mosv of the Nortl Otago companies Deing without officers, by reason of persecution by the O.C. district. No one supposes these paragraphs, which, of course, were copied into other journals throughout thf> Dominion, got into print by accident. These statement were so made as to leave no opportunity for a presentation of the obverse side of the question, for a staff officer may not, even in the remote possibility of his being willing to do so, take part in a newspaper controversy upon administration. Instead of resigning and stating- their grievance officially, the officers concerned have allowed their complaint to be publicly circulated throughout the whole of the Dominion, whilst officially they have resigned without complaint. These attemptto spread di-saffection throughout the \vholr> district because of local dissatisfaction, and to publicly discredit an officer _ without leaving him the option of vindication, have alienated sympathy in other quarters from those immediately concerned in Oamar'i, however just their grievance may be. Fortunately * for the cause of Volunteering generally, there is no word of dissatisfaction from any other portion of the Otago district. The Dunedin Oity Guards have recently enrolled as a member Private Walker, who has a record of 25 yeare' service, mostly in Queensland and Tasmania, and has served thrice in South Africa, once as company sergeant -major. His zeal for military service has induced him to join the City Guards as a private. The following extract from a letter received from the War Office by the Minister of Defence is published for general information: — "In view of the fact. *Nat at present the only Militia in New Zealand is the Permanent Militia, a candidate for a commission in the British army must liave served not less than two years iif the active Defence Forces of the Dominion, and have carried out the camp attendances and drills prescribed in the regulations for those forces. This, with two months' attachment to the Permanent Militia, may be accepted as equivalent to the qualifications laid down in paragraphs 3, (d), and (c) of the regulations under which commissions in the British army may be obtained by officers of colon'al local military forces." Apropos of the occasional lack of respect for the King's uniform, of which we had recently a disreputable example locally, a Home paper has the following :—" AJI right-thinking men will heartily approve of the action of the magistrate who recently convicted and punished a man for bringing the King's uniform into contempt at a carnival held in connection with the Hornsey Cottage Hospital. The individual in question, not perhaps with the intention of drawing ridicule on the soldier's profession, appeared at the carnival wearin? a military tunic, trousers, and cap. In. fckja caa were some black feathers

and artificial roses. His cheeks, eyebrows, and nose were daubed \yith red paint or ochre in a very suggestive manner, while his breast was adorned with two caricatures of medals m the shape of two lids of blacking tins. To complete the mockery, he carried on his shoulder a toy rifle reversed. Fortunately, the polioe showed but little sympathy with his conduct, and although his plea of ignorance of the act wae on a par with his a.ppearance in the carnival, the magistrate, we are glad to say. upheld the dignity of the King's uniform and convicted the defendant."

The report recently issued by the Army Council on the musketry training of the ,regular and auxiliary forces during the year 1906 shows a striking advance in marksmanship, and this is attributed to the use of the S.M.L.E. "rifle, with which the course was fired last year for the first time. The following are the average points obtained in target shooting by units of cavalry and infantry in the annual course of 1905 and in that of 1906: —

The improvement in infantry shooting is remarkable, and the Army Council has naturally drawn special attention to it, pointing out that it is due, in a measure, to the fact that the new rifle enables the firer, by the use of the wind-gauge, to., direct his aim on the objective under all circumstances of weather, in place of aiming off the mark so as to counteract the effect of any wind that may be prevailing at the time.

Cavalry regiments infantry regiments 1905. 171 160 1906 176 17S