The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81854, 29 September 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.

DEFEXCE MATTERS. Everv commandant of the forces in New Zealand has said the work ol the last commandant was useless, and has started to earn his wages by making tremendous proposals, wiucn have been vigorously put in operation for a brief period and abandoned thereafter for over. In the past it has been found necessary to bung a ntan who knows nothing about the country to teach bushmen how to fight ill the bush. li has also been found necessary to bring a cavalry officer to make the farmer-soldiers of New Zealand efficient fighters and riders. It is necessary to do these things before we have done them before. * * * *

THERE are rumours that the "War Office" in Wellington is about to get its dry bones badly rattled—that Colonel Pitt, the Minister of Defence, is going to clear the office out, lock, stock and barrel. While such an ac tion would do injusiico to a few exceedingly competent and conscientious men, it would also turn out men whose claim to the distinction of a highly-paid job is that they have a that's t for something that is not work. The fighting strength of the country, providing it had something to fight with—which it hasn't—wouid be increased by the disbandment of eveiy unit of defence, excepting artillery. The people of New Zealand would be forced, should such a disbandment eventuate, to see the absolute necessity of being wiliing' and ablo to shoulder a gun.

* * * * Who taught Cronje or Joubert or L)e Wet to bo generals? Patriotism. What staff college turned out- the great leaders who were too good for trained troops in the American War ot Independence ? No staff college—just patriotism and common sense. Whom did tho Germans dread the nii.st in the Franco-Prussian War? The red and go.d and silver men? Not at all. It was the frane-tireur the German toraued to death. The franc-tireur was a patriot. He tlul not care whether tins pay was (en sous a day or. nothing. He was thinking of his beloved France, and he fought and died for her without ever having been told to step off with ilte left foot. The only question for New Zealand in the matter of defence is not "Will the volunteer light?'' but "Will New Zea'anders fight? ' It is a question for the nation and not fur a few of the population.

* * * * New Zealand has no commandant to-day. Would New Zealand be ma .eriaMy weaker without the presence .if Colonel liabingt.m if the Jap came along to-morrow? We don't tliink so. The man New Zealand wants as a military leader is a New X'alander, by binii or residence, a man acquainted with the New X' .i----lancler, his aspirations, his peculiarities and his worth as a defender. Not necessarily a man who sees in the uniformed person the be-all and ' nd,il 1 of defence, but a man who sec* 111 every male person a unit of possible defence. As a liiatler of fact, 110 commandant has done New Zealand very much good. The coast de fences are just about as useless now as they ever were. There is nothing, nor will there be for fifty years, to pievent an enemy from landing in Xew Zealand, but there is something .hat will give him a bad time when ne is landed—and that something ; s ilic patriots of the country. Call n 1 lie people 10 do their little bit 'ci\a:ds the defence of their own property, not by .-pending a huge jtiiounl oil useless display and more useless officers, but by le'ling them (hat they are the defenders of their country, and will be expected to [jut a pound or two in the collar when the fiis' Jap shows Ills brown visage, ■n iiie sea-line.