In the Days of the Auckland Volunteers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 19

In the Days of the Auckland Volunteers

When Citizens Trained for War . . . Mines Laid in Rangitoto Channel... Wild Nights in Camp

- ; 3W Zealanders pride I I themselves that i some of the poli--llg 11 ! tieal experiments tjgggfcplgf I tried out in the - - Dominion have ISSSHisn i *> een imitated by I I other and older A— ■ nations. But they rarely remember ♦hat the Volunteer military movement, which later rose to such fame In Eng’and under Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, had its origin in Auckland. In 1856 the Colonial Office of the Rrit'sh Government, wearying of the continual task of supplying imperial troops and British money to carry on the wars against the Maoris, warned Governor Gore-Brown that the time was not far distant when New Zealand would have to pay for its own defence. n r John Logan Campbell, who was later knighted for his services to the country, was Superintendent of the province of Auckland at that time and. f„eine the justice of the Colonial Office's decision, he placed £I,OOO on the Estjtna.es of that year to buy arms' for the outfitting of a company of volunteer searksmen. Realising the importance of enthusiasm in such an undertaking Dr. Campbell out of his own pocket, presented tor competition among marksmen-to-be a silver vase and championship belt. Thus, thanks to his far-sighted efforts, the first two volunteer rifle companies in the British Empire were formed within a few days of each other in Auckland. The importance of the step was made clear, three years later, when Great Britain followed suit, but the importance of some such incentive to keenness as was provided by Dr. Cain pbell’s championship vase and belt was not realised until the end of the century and 40 years elapsed before the movement began to gain ground in England. The first two volunteer rifle com-

panics in the British Empire, then, were the First Royals and the City Rifles. They were formed either at the end of 1856 or at the beginning of 1857 and, hefore 1860, had been reinforced by the formation of the first volunteer artillery company in the Empire, the Auckland Naval Artillery. On the outbreak of the Maori War of

-1563, the Royals were added to by the enrolment of Nos. 2,3, 4, 5 and 6 Companies. The First, Third and Sixth Royals nnd the City Rifles and some members o' the Auckland Navals gained the onour of being the first volunteer soldiers to fight beside Imperial troops, hey distinguished themselves at the efence of the Galloway Redoubt and • ockade in company with the 63rd lat Royal Irish Regiments and th er at attack on, and capture of. o settlement at Otau. , , t “ er companies remained behind to to 6 1,** ■k'RMand which was, according sir the stan< lard of the day, fairly °ngly fortified. Blockhouses were

situated at strategic points, one being near the crest of what is now Parnell Rise, another where the War Memorial Museum stands, another in Newmarket, another in Karangahape Road, another in Great North Road and, to . complete the chain, the last in Freeman’s Bay. The Militia of the First Class was sent to the front in July, 1563, and in February of the following year the Second Class, comprising ] business and trades people, was

ordered out. A contemporary newspaper feared that if enlistments continued the shops of the town would have to close and display notices, “Gone to the Front.” In 1866 there was some reorganisation of the volunteer forces. The Royals were disbanded and reformed under the title of the Victoria Rifles,

by which name they were known for ' over 40 years; that is, until their final disbanding when the Defence Act of 1909 was passed, and the Auckland 1 Navals were also reorganised, although they retained their old name. With the end of the Maori rebellion of the 'sixties a period of stagnation set in in all things military ill New Zealand. The City Rifles were forced l to disband completely and the Victoria l Rifles and the Auckland Navals fe,l to far below effective membership. B”t a quarrel in ISS4 over the i frontier between India and Russia in Afghanistan made it seem likelj r that ■ Great Britain might be forced to, fight I and the Volunteers were eagerly re-

vived in Auckland. In 1884 and 1885 many companies were formed by enthusiastic businessmen and amateur soldiers and energetic preparations—notably the mining of Rangitoto Channel—were made for the defence of the city. # In these years the Ponsonby Navals, the Gordon Rifles, the Queen’s Own Rifles, the Hobson Rifles and the City Guards were formed and the old City Rifles were revived. These corps worked hard for a few years but by

1895 all except the Ponsonby Navals were extinct, the Queen’s Own being disbanded before the end of 1888. For a time, once more, it seemed as though the movement was dead. The Victoria Rifles, the Auckland Navals and the Ponsonby Navals struggled on but there was little public interest in the work and the membership of the Victoria Rifles at the beginning of the 'nineties was so low that there was not a sufficient, number of mqp to perform the simplest piece of infantry drill—form fours —for the reason that there were only three men left. Again a spur was needed and again It was not long in coming. As early as 1897 the disturbances in South Africa had opened up the prospect of a war with the Boers. The College Rifles was founded in June, 1597, and by the end of IS9S ten more companies had been formed —No. 1 New Zealand Native Rifles, Devonport Coast Guards, No. 2 New Zealand Native Rifles, Auckland Rifles, No. 3 New Zealand Native Rifles, No. 2 Victoria Rifles, Auckland Bearer Corps,'Newton Rifles, Auckland Mounted Rifles and Auckland Engineers. After the war the life of the companies went on much as before, but when Kitchener visited the Dominion in 190 S their doom was sealed. He persuaded the New Zealand Government to adopt the system of compulsory training and in 1909 the Defence Act superseded the Volunteers. Not all of them gave up their work, however. Many were appointed to the permanent staff and did fine work under the most difficult conditions imaginable in helping to get New Zealand’s territorial system in working order.

But enough of history! In the very early days—say the late 'fifties and the ’sixties —the companies existed more or less as necessities. They were originally formed for the purpose of fighting the Maoris and even after the 1863 War that idea persisted for some time. But gradually, as New Zealand settled down into peace, the men began to take an interest in the companies as ends in themselves rather than as means to an end. The corps became something very near to social clubs —tbere ivas in them almost a flavour of the modern Rotary or Freemasonry.

Each company received an annual capitation fee from the Government ranging from 10s to about £2 10s a man, but generally this money was_ allowed to remain in the company funds. At all events, there were many difficult and exasperating regulations to be satisfied before the money was earned. For example, each company had to do 52 drills a year, and unless two-thirds of the corps were present at the drill it did not count in the total. Now rifle shooting was one of the great enthusiasms of the time, but as .it was necessary to parade at four or five o’clock in the morning to get the use of the range it was difficult to get a full parade. But authority was lenient. It realised that the companies were working under difficulties; that j they were doing good work and that { they would not carry on without the | encouragement of the capitation fee. I There were, therefore, many tricks ! which was resorted to openly —or, ! at least, fairly openly —for presenting I a full parade roll. i a staff-sergeant-major would come from headquarters to take the roll at' 1 each parade —the captain of the company, probably only about half of which was present, would call his men i to attention and then the following 1 commands would be given: “Front rank, eight (or perhaps’ten or twelve! paces to the left, close!” —“Rear rank. 1 eight men from the right, two paces i forward, march!”. Company, stand at ease!” Carry on, sergeant-major!” Then the sergeant-major would num- | ber the files in the front rank and. ignoring the fact that the rear rank j was only about half-full, would report

to headquarters that so-and-so company had completed another parade. On the rifle range the procedure was much the same. A section of the company would answer its names as they were called over by the sergeantmajor, go to the butts, fire, return and answer to a new set of names and then fire again. The companies used to parade every week. The infantrymen would go out at five o’clock in the morning to the Domain to drill or to the rifle range on Mount Eden for class-firing practice. Usually the artillery worked in

(Written for THE SUN by L. W. P. Reeves.)

the evenings, in the early days going over to the forts at Devonport and later to the barracks where dummy guns were used for practice. The mounteds ivould take Saturday afternoon and go for long treks in the country. There are numberless stories concerning the camps which were held at Castor Bay beyond Takapuna—some repeatable and some not. There is, for example, the tale of the C.O. who inspected the lines on the last day under canvas with the canteen-barmaid on his arm, while his brother officers looked jeal-

ous in the background. There is the story of the lieutenant who collapsed “♦under the influence” in the canteen one evening and of how his major, only slightly less far gsne himself, picked him up, took him along to a certain tent and threw him bodily on top of a captain who was a notorious teetotaller and who was sleeping the sleep of the just after a hard day’s work. There was no court-martial. At one of these camps there occurred a thing which is unknown and which never happened subsequently In New Zealand. A hot-headed fellow, who had a grudge against his captain in civil life, one evening in the canteen started a quarrel with him and hit him before the eyes of half the regiment. A court-martial was held next morning and the man was sentenced to be drummed out of the regiment. Next day, at sunrise, the men formed up in hollow square. The man’s crime and sentence were read aloud and in dead silence his accoutrements were stripped from him. Then he was mounted on his horse (it was a mounted company in those days) and

slowly, solemnly, the' drums began to beat. Slowly, in time with the beats, the horse was led to the edge of the square, which opened to make a passage. Then, as the .drums quickened, the horse was released and the man rode through the ranks. But he had hardly gone ten yards, and the drums were still beating furiously, when he turned in his saddle, shook his fist and yelled, “To h with the lot of you.” The companies did comparatively Uttle drill, nearly all of them devoting , themselves to rifle work. Indeed, if a ; corps possessed no good shots it was | looked down upon and sneered at. j What drill there was was mainly j ceremonial. For instance, a company was judged to .be efficient on the parade ground if if could form well that is wheel in line in good order. In those days, when the command “Company, on the left, form! ” was given the men did not break ranks and come round at a marching pace, each man with his shoulder behind that of the man on his left. Instead, the line came round in one piece with the men to

shoulder, the whole thing moving stiffly like a ruler. The movement was very slow if carried out by a full company and took from three to five minutes to complete, but it was wonderfully impressive and every corps practised it keenly. In the early days, before the Ponsonby and Devonport Navals combined to form the Garrison Artillery and before the forts at North Head were built the Ponsonby Navals used to go to Takapuna with the other corps. There was at that time in the company a particularly fussy officer, Captain X. He always refused to sleep under canvas and a small, red-painted hut was provided for him. This hut stood on the edge of a gentle hill and one night a band of men returning from the canteen toppled the hut over and rolled it down the hill with the gallant captain inside it. That was all very well and the offenders were never caught, but a few nights later four young men decided to repeat the joke. This time they were caught and promptly marched to the guard tent which, on that particular evening, was

in charge of a strict and hard-working sergeant. Next morning the court-martial was called together and the sergeant ordered to march in the prisoners. There was a slight pause and then the sergeant, rosy about the gills, marched in four very small and very innocent-looking drummer-boys. How the substitution was carried out was never discovered, but there they were, looking rather sheepish before the glory of half-a-dozen officers in full dress. The court broke up in disorder. One of the later companies, which is still remembered, was the Auckland Mounted Rifles. Many well-known

businessmen in the city today were members of it and will recall Captain tlater Lieutenant-Colonel) W. D. Holgate. who was its first commander. Mr. G. R. Hutchison, Mr. G. O'Halloran. Mr. Percy Salmond. Colonel J. G. Wynyard. Mr. P. How den and the Rev. W. E. Gillam (.who died recently) wort' all connected with its foundation and work. I Going over to Takapuna for the j camps there were no vehicular ferries | and the men used to have great diffi- ! culty in getting their horses across. Persuading a skittish, well-conditioned | er IID a steep and narrow gang* , way on to a ferry steamer is not as j o cue might think and the man who had a way with horses was much in demand among his friends. This ; company, too, used to hold an annual ; gymkhana at Alexandra Park. Mounted I companies from Waiuku, the Waikato. Pukekohe. and the East Coast and the Franklin districts used to come in for ! the event and there were competitions

which were watched by half Auckland. There have been, on the whole, too many personalities connected with the volunteer movement in this city for one to be able to mention many of the older names. The risk of omitting someone whose work has earned him a right to prominence is too great. The volunteers took the place of wliat has always been considered necessary in New Zealand —a defence force. They provided the Government with an extraordinarily , cheap and efficient body of men and were the recognised defenders of the country until the Territorials, raised under the Defence Act, superceded them. Many of the volunteers were killed in the Boer War and many more in the War of 1914-18. The men of the old volunteer corps worked hard and performed duties which every citizen considered necessary though comparatively few were willing to perform. May they not be forgoiten!