VOLUNTEERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 20, 24 January 1902, Page 2

VOLUNTEERS.

1 i J Tail local encampment practioally broke up last nigiit* the wet weather : 1 interfering with the attendance of men, and tents will be struck this morning/ A battalion parade will be held on Monday evening, when tho question of drees uniform for the whole battalion will be discussed. Local volunteers ! are requested in the meantime to think 1 over the matter, so as to decide what | they would prefer. The members of the Stratford, . Mounted Rifles are in high glee at tha ' receipt of a cheque from the Government for £4 10s, which constitutes a I prize for good volley firing. s The Fgriidnt PGM reports, in eons nection with the Stratford Rifl. s camp, • that when the men one evening arrived r for te», tired and hungry, and the joints f were set before them, each mess had to tie down the deadly corn beef, which a was so high. For half an hour there 5 was serious disturbance. Men grabbed a their bayonets, officers harangued, ser- '• geants wsre in distraction, whilst the ? cook fled for his life through the woods. * At last military discipline was restored, a and a stoppage put to the riot, Trie if leaders of the mutiny, after courtmartial, were highly complimented for their gallantry in tesisting an attempt >a to destroy the whole with poison.

THE NEW OOMMANDMANT. Commenting upon the appointment of General Bibington to be chief commander of the New Za&land Forces a London paper remarks : General Babington is one of the best of Kitchener's officers, and New Zealand is very lucky to get him. New Zealand is quite different from all the other colonies in this respect. It has never been without an army, from the earliest days, when Captain Hobson went there to see what he could maka of the savages and pirates and escaped oonviets there, the forces of the Grown were represented, and were tbe recognised symbol of authority. The good old 65th ware so long iu the colony that every nun and most of the officers settled there. Wherever you go there now you meet with 65th—fathers, sons, or grandsons. The same might be said of the 58tb, the 68tb, and the 43rd. y The bones of the dead lie there. And there are people of their name and blood there who love these humble but unforgetable memories. For periods of ten years together there were 10,000 Imperial troops in New Zealand at once; and there were brigaded with tbem 10,000 colooial levies. At Home —here in England—they laughed, at colonial soldiers then. They do not laugh at them now. When General Babington gets to New Zealand he will find 3000 troops who have served in the war in South Africa, have never surrendered & man or a rifle, and never carried about pianos or cooking stoves. He is too good a fellow to be upset by this novel experiment. He will find the New Zealanders forgetting and forgiving,"

The regiment which will have the 'greatest number of clasps on its Sou'h African War medal will, it seems, bj the, Ist Battalion Yorkshire Regiment. This battalion has now gained clasps for the following engagements: —The relief of Kimberley, Paardeburg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, and Belfast. The number of officers and men who have qualified for all these bars is 330, while probably as mtny more will be entitled to wear at least a proportion of them.; Prior to the introduction of the " territorial system " the Yorkshire Regiment was known as the 19th Foot. As such it fought at Malplacjuet, at the Alma, and Inkermau, and at the siege of Sebastopol, Before the present campaign it had not been on active service since the Tirah Expedition. A peculiarity in the regiment's uniform consists in the fact that its " facings" are grass green in colour. On this account the corps is familiarly known as the " Green Howards,"'

PHB PBHSB ASSOCIATION. OHBisTcauaOH, January 22. An information wae laid under the Uniform Act, J 895, against John Brown, for bringing the King's uniform into contempt by wearing and old band uniform, a facsimile of the 14th Hussars, blacking his face, and riding about for advertising purposes. The justices inflicted a fine of 10s and costs as the law is not well known. . WBLmraroN, January 23. Owing to thfl continual rain to-day at Trentham rifle range the Wellington Rifle Association's meeting could not take place.