J. BATTERY ATTENTION.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1272, 10 February 1883, Page 2

J. BATTERY ATTENTION.

Tn looking over tho new volunteer regulations we observe the following, in clause 182 “ Any volunteer proved to have written to a newspaper on matters connected with his corps shall be liable to be fined £3, and summarily dismissed the force,” &c. To put it mildly, this appears to us to be a mistake, as it assumes the regulation, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, to be perfection, which decidedly they are not, as some of the clauses are repugnant to the Volunteer Act while the Act provides no regulation shall be so And other clauses in the regulations are partically useless. For instance, the target and judging distance pratices, which do not demand even a low minimum of qualification ; so that in the former every shot may be expended in the mountain instead of on the target, and in the latter the most absurd answers may be given with impunity. These present reforming regulations are tho outcome mainly of letters in the Press, written mostly by volunteers. We hold there is no finality in the soldier’s business more than any other consequently fair criticism is an actual necessity, and such penalties as those mentioned in the above quoted clause are mistakes, for who knows the defective ropes in a ship so well as the crew. Moreover,-as it has taken some eighteen or twenty years of free discussion to obtain the present reform, how many years will it take for further improvement nnder such a repressive clause as that above refferred to “ N. Z. Herald. ”