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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1128, 21 August 1882, Page 2

| Some time ago we drew special attention to : the discontent prevailing among the Poverty ■ Bay Artillery Volunteers, with the treatl ment they have received at the hands of the . Government, regarding the issue to them of a field gun. We need hardly remind our i readers that Mr McDonald, M.H.R., telej graphed to us saying that Sir G. Whitmore i and himself were working hard to obtain a I gun for the J Battery. That was some time . ago, and up to the present time we have i heard no more of it. We now hear that ! things are assuming a very unpleasant aspect. The facts of the J Battery being the largest j and best attended in the Colony, of their | efficiency and smartness ; their willing unde? • taking of their duties ; and the chances of j their services in the field being ever actually , required, seems not to weigh one with the • stupid redtapesm, nay, worse, favoritism shown by the Powers that be, who by the way exhibit a greater capacity for being the powers that are not. It is a lasting disgrace to them authorities. They cannot be soldiers, i or they would afford their men every facility • for drill, yet in spite of the representations made by Captain PoftTfcß, commanding the ■ District, and Captain Winter, commanding the J Battery, Backed by Mr McDonald, M.H.R., and Sir George Whitmore, the i J Battery cannot obtain & gun, while the ’ Nelson Artillery have three guns, one of which does not belong to them. Let us ask these would be Generals at the head of volunteer matters for an explanation. Our j v’*ew of the matter is that these so-called 1 authorities don’t know their work and are i unfit for their positions. Either as officers i or sensible men, they must recognise the fact that it is absolutely requisite that any j Battery of Volunteer Artillery, especially such an efficient and numerically strong battery, and so located us the J Battery, 1 should be supplied with a gun and limber ; for the necessary purposes of gun drill and practice. We have asked Captains Porter i and Winter for some information on this ! head, and shall have more to say On the Sub- j 1 ject when we receive it,