MILITIA AND VOLUNTEERS.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 281, 29 June 1860, Page 4

MILITIA AND VOLUNTEERS.

The opinion is gaining ground that the militia system is unwieldly, inefficient, unjusc, tyrannical, and ruinous to the poorer class of settlers, and that a volunteer system^where the men would t eleofc their own officers, and.have,the power,, of cashiering them for drunkenness, being however subordinate to the duly constituted1 higher authorities. I make no doubt but that civilians so elected to.the post of /officers- would' be to the full as efficient as nominated officers of the Hue, who had not seen active service.

because the warfare in which we would be likely to be engaged, is one in which the stern discipline of regular troops is rather an impediment to success, requiring.an amount.of individual judgment and action, incompatible with the habits of men accustomed to act as vast machines in solid masses. Had the British army a force similar ,to the Voltigeurs of the French Republic, and were such a force opposed to the Maories in tho present emergency, then indeed the case would be different. They are just the description of 1 troops which are necessary to, cope with our wily foe,' and their place can be best sup- ' plied by' colonists" armed with the rifle and bayonet, and trained to the highest efficiency as marksmen. In connexion with the election of officers by the volunteers, and the power to be, vested in them of cashiering such officers for incompetency, drunkenness or cowardice, I would observe :— Some men have a natural genius and aptitude for war, which by an aristocratic organization is concealed and repressed, while incompetenoy and pusillanimity .in the officers, occasioning the most fearful mishaps, are effectually screened. This truth is clearly established alike by the disasters and successes of the French Republic, as also by the series of calamities, which usually befall the British arms, at the commencement of every war. '. ' - Of the advantage of popular "suffrage" t»yer aristocratic nomination, to ensure the posting of right men in the right places, we have a remarkable instance in the Vendean insurreo- j tion against the French Republic. Four Generals, all popularly chosen, and all distinguished by remarkable ability, took the field on the part of the insurgents, and long and successfully contended with the disciplined veterans of the Republic. The ablest amongst them was originally a pedlar, and was by common consent elected generalissimo. Under him the proudest aristocrats were proud to serve. With an aristocratic organization of the insurgent "army such a man would have been relegated to the ranks, his genius repressed, and the common cause sacrificed. In the like manner the patriot Hofer, popularly chosen, a peasant or farmer, offered a most effectual resistance to the arms of Napoleon. Austrian scientific officers visited the Tyrol to instruct the mountaineers how they could best stem the tide of invasion, and suggested measures of defence which, with the limited resources of the Tyrolese^ were absolutely impracticable.. They, nevertheless, impoverished a mode of resistance, which if not in the long run successful (for they were crushed by the overwhelming numerioal superiority of Napoleon's legions) yet left a bloody and dear bought victory to their enemies.

I will merely add, that the peculiar nature of bushwarfa^e,;nob only requires the;opeh; order of battle,but more of independent action1 arid self-reliance than are compatible with the evolutions of regular tr 00p5,. ; moving ;ia compact array.—Philalethes.—t JFeWiwjriow Independent...-.-.-. ■ - • ■•■•■' ■■ ■■■ ■.-" :' "■' :