LONG SERVICE DECORATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 297, 25 January 1910, Page 8

LONG SERVICE DECORATION.

CAI'TAIN CAiIM" ! :;-s<. Y.l). j At the Drill Hull hist night, during | the battaliun parade oi lh t . headquarter* companies, Colonel Okey, ollieer commanding thi' 4th Wellington (Tai'.iliaki) battalion, presented to Capt.iin W. C. i\ Carm-ros*. ui Kliimiu, and at pro.-i-iit «.« thi' »i«i un.t ! tlie Culi.nia! Auxiliary Forces l.iug-S';- | vice .Medal, ami tl;--* Olivers' lXwr.ttun i for lonvr and eni-.ient service. There J was a gool iuii-itr o: iho volunteers, and the public vvu>f a!.v. fairly v. eli j presented, apart iruin the juv: niK> members of the community who seem to ] haunt the drill-sh: n. nthcr <'iu< *■'r> pro* < sent were: Colon-. 1 Kiiis, V.i).; Lieut.-; Colonel Okey, Ciia;)!ain-.\!:«jor lLvan>. i Captain ami Adjaiaiu llellringer. Captain F. W. Okey, Captain I* 1 etcher (commanding the Tarauaki liilles), Captain A]ills (commanding Taranaki ftuard-J. Lieutenants Willis (Uilles) and ]'/.mile (Guards). The Hon. T. Kelly, M.L.C.. and Mr V\\ T. .leanings, M.P., also formed members of the official irroup. Colonel Okey read the following iciter from the lion. U. Samuel. M.LC.; "I very much regret that 1 cannot intend tin' function in honor of my friend nnd fellow-Councillor the lion. A!r. Camcross. A:;von e who knows him will feel no surprise that h> should have achieved such honors in the military portion of his career, as ho is one of those who by ability amj, energy and perseverance succeed in all tliev undertake.'' Mr. 11. Okey, II.?.. forwarded : j r, apology of absence, on account of tli? unsatisfactory state of his father's health. J In making the presentation. Colon:-! Okey said that it was not given to ail military men to earn medals on active service, and it was not always thsii fault, for usually they had no chance of serving in front of the enemy. The next best thing was to bo trained and prepared to give to an enemy knocking at our doors the reception he de- rv?d. , lie ret erred to th e pclicv of Briti-h and j colonial ' Governments in presenting ! medals for long and efficient service,' the long-service medal being nvailaldcj upon completion of sixteen years' f.-r-1 vice by officers or :r.: n. and the officers' i decoration only by officers at the end j of twenty years' service. Either term j was worthy of recognition, for training. took a crest deal of the time of either! .ofilcer or private. T:i the Imperial | j\nnv one iinauaily expected the officers to devote a great deal of time to perfecting themselves: it was their bufii- 1 ness.- 13ut volunteer officers had tlieir business to attend to by day, and had only their spare hours to devote to military training. It xTTnis gave him exceed- 1 ingly great pleasure in presenting these decorations to any officer who had veil earned them. i The medals wer e pinned on the recipi- j ent's breast amidst applause, and the Colonel expressed the wish that Captain Carneross, V.U., would long live to wear them. Captain Carneross. in returning thanks, apologised for not appeari".',' in uniform, and explained the reason, lie welcomed the presence of .a few Parliamentary friends. Mr. .lenr.ings he had known for a great many years, and the Hon. T. Kelly's medal lie had envied, for it was a record of active service. Tie received these medals, ;e said, with a good deal of pleasure and a fair amount of pride, for thev represented a considerable time in volunteering life—a life that had carried with it a good deal of work, a lot of pleasure, and a considerable amount of that anxiety which always fell to an officer in command a '■omimnv. His memory of his earlv volunteering life took him back to the days when it required a large amount of moral couracre to don the volunteer uniform, for in those (la vs tile volunteer was laughed and jeered! at liv men who had not the pluck or spirit enouQ'h to don the uniform themselves. - Volunteers were held in higlvr respect now. as they ouejht to be. The drill was more interesting. too, and of a more practical nature, and he had found that the more work and the more responsibility ca«t on the men the greater the enfinr-ia-ni and competency. For his "ii-i. he didn't regret one minute of the 20 veir< devoted io ynlunteerinsr. (Applause). Captain Carneross went on to say that the public could and should help volunteering more than thev did. end tli-re was an wnv of <ioin" it--'hev could provide prizes for rifle-=hoot'n?. Conking around h'm he noticed that most oF the men in the companies were voun? men. with nrob-iblv rrv litUe to protect of jFt'heir own. Tf the call came to arms, th'-v —ouM be fnp"d protecting "thev people's propo v tv. tli" nrooertv of the -vell-'o-do. n"d of others, Com Indium li ( . se ; d !l'"t h- '"•eiildn't see any ve;lrs' covvie-* rPO'l-IU, T T e Tl"d a ll'TOIl ■of ealliPT H'l't "mv medal" or thr "Carneross medal.'' for it wn = onlv afte-, l)w repopnnnnrl'ilion that 4 l'e million ti-s bad reduced form If! to 15 vcr= the te'-m of service required of a pr'vah before I*eii"r •"lilitled to a med-il. n.on■applause, and cheers for Captain Cam i-l-es = , The F-p. T. TCellv. Mr. TT. T. T-r. J ' livl Colonel "on'-ra tula' ei I llio i-eein'ept nr>on vpffyin" this iv,'o:;( '|nosiiiou ":p yobni e-'T |if-\ and ni"j'ed i'li nrese'^-* 1 -v volunteers to "ro and ib likewise." , ■