OUR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 28 November 1907, Page 6

OUR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

The machinery of a first-class battle- ] ship weighs about 1,300 tone. It has been calculated that, roughly speaking, £2,000,000,000 has been spent by uigland in the eight largest wars in which she has been engaged. Broad-headed horses are the cleverest. In the Household Cavalry the horses with broad foreheads learn their drill more quickly than the others. The new 12in 50-ton gun, which is supplied to new battleships, is capable of piercing forty-*ix inches of wrought iron, if this were placed against the muzzle. In Queen Elizabeth's reign the expenses of the Navy were about £6,000 a year, a contrast to the present huge sum of nearly £30,000,000 sterling spent annually on the fleet.

The Northumberland Fusiliers have the sobriquets of the "Shiners," the "Old Bold Fifth," "Fighting Fifth," "Lord Wellington's Bodyguard," and the "Old and Bold." Bowa and arrowe were in use among the troops of civilised European Powers as late as 1855, for during the Crimean War sonic Russian irregulars were found armed with them, and some of the weapons were brought to Higland by the' returning troops as curiosities. Although nowadays a sergeant-major is only a uoo-eommifsioned officer, in the old times, during the Thirty Years' War, for instance, he had command over all the colonels, could raise recruits as he pleased, and assisted in the disposal and arrangement of the troops before a battle. The Victoria Cross has for over fifty years preserved its unique character, and it is to be hoped that British soldiers will always regard as the most coveted distinction that little broze medal made of cannon taken at Sevastopol, although it is intrinsically worth only +Jd. The custom of wearing roses in their headgear by the Lancashire Rigmcnt on the anniversary of the Battle of Jfinden originated in a curious manner. On the day of the battle on August Ist, 1759, the men passed through a field of roses, each man plucking a rose and placing it in his bonnet, wearing the flower during the fight. This commenced the custom which obtains at the present day of wearing roses on the anniversary of the battle. Although the regulations of the Navy do not permit of officers of any grade carrying their wives to 3ea with them, there arc a few cases where by special permission this regulation is abrogated. On one occasion Admiral Sir John Fisher, when proceeding to the North American and West Indies Station as Commander-in-Chief, was permitted to take Lady Fisher with him in the "Renown." A previous instance had not occurred for many years. The stokers on board an ocean liner, provided the men .are steady in their habits, suffer very little from their arduous labours. A stoker works four hours at a stretch, and during that time the temperature of hi* surroundings varies from 120deg. to 160deg. One stoker usually has four furnaces to attend to, and while feeding one furnace a man has to be extremely careful, or his arm will be burnt by the furnace behind him. A man is occupied for about three minutes at each furnace. It has been fouud that the work is least injurious to the men who are re gularly employed at it.