CANTERBURY.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 399, 20 August 1861, Page 3

CANTERBURY.

From tlw Press,

THE VOLUNTEERS. At the festival of turning the first sod of the railway last week, a body of gentlemen were distributed amongst the people—a rather disorderly crowd—armed with rifles and bayonets. As this is the first occasion on which thi3 has happened it is necessary to call public attention to the fact. The Volunteers will not, we are sure, be offended with us when we say that this is a practice which ought at once to be put a stop to. There is no one thing more utterly repugDant to all the notions of an Englishman than that armed men should appear in a public crowd. There is nothing upon which public opiuion is more determined than this. Carrying arms is always dangerous, and should any slight disturbance occur becomes the occasion for bloodshed. When the Volunteers appear armed they should appear as soldiers, that is to say they should never leave their ranks, but should remain subject to the discipline of the service and to the command of their officers. Soldiers in England are uot allowed to go about armed amongst crowds.

The Lyttelton Times states that there was a proposal made by one man cr officer in the corps to repel the mob from the tent into which it was breaking c with fixed bayonets.' We hope this is not true; if it be, that gentleman should be informed that had that suggestion been adopted and a man been killed, as in the rush of a crowd is never unlikely, the officer giving the order might possibly have been hanged. But the story shows in the clearest light how important it is that the constitutional practice should not be departed from. T.he policeman's truncheon is the civil weapon; we require nothing mo c. The Volunteers will probably be a most welcome aud popular body at all public festivals, and they deserve to be so. All we ask is, that if they come to mix with the coaipany, they shall come unarmed; if they come armed they shall never be permitted to leave their ranks.

[The following is the paragraph alluded to by the Press, it is taken from a letter to the editor of the Lytielton limes. The offenders have been severely reprimanded by the proper authorities. The conduct of the gallant volunteer officers who suggested, and tbe very few brave volunteers who responded, and were prepared to charge with fixed bayonets cheir unarmed fellow colonists cannot be too highly commended, aa tending to give to the volunteers of Canterbury a kind of popularity which I am afraid the majority of them would not admire].

CANTERBURY AND OTAGO BOUNDARY. We stated in a former article upon the authority of a private letter from Auckland, that the late ministers asserted that the Superintendent of this province had not answered a letter from the Colonial Secretary, requesting him to appoint an arbitrator to settle the boundary between this province and Otago. Hence the bill which had just passed the General Assembly. We are informed tint Mr. Moorhouse asserts that he did answer that letter, and state 1 that he would appoint an arbitrator as soon as he returned from Melbourne. • Document:-; will of course be presented to the Provincial Council, showing that such is the truth. Pending the production of such documents, we can bave no hesitation iv saying we prefer to believe his*. honor the Superintendent. There must bave been 3jdqo mistake on the part of the late mia< isters.