THE CADET ENCAMPMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 327, 1 March 1910, Page 4

THE CADET ENCAMPMENT.

WHAT DID THE PARENTS EXPEUT*

"What did the parents expect?" asked a member of the stall of Xo. 1 Taranaki Battalion of public school cadets last night, conversing with a Daily New*' reporter. " People must think that when cadets go away they go for a picnic, and nothing else. Some of them seem to have a very poor opinion of the officer:-', too, and forget that for the most Dart these same oil'icers are responsible teachers, who wouldn't allow- half the tilings to happen that are alleged. For instance," he went on, " there's a story going round that the boys had not a. bite to eat on the train journey from Johnsonville to Xew Plymouth on Saturday. That statement is entirely wrong. To my own knowledge there were 23 tins of biscuits' on the train when we left. We telegraphed to Otaki and Aramoho, and the boys had hot tea there. At Aramoho we took on 10 loaves of bread and 20 lb of cheese. Just before we reached Bell Block 1 went through the train myself with biscuits, and nobody wanted anything to eat. The boys were all merry and singing. They had our carriage, too. The officers, except for a few brief intervals, travelled, on the carriage platforms from six o'clock in the morning till nine o'clock at night. We did our best for the boys', and when they landed here they were well and happy. The statement that we had about twenty sick boys in the hospital tent is rather remarkable, seeing that the hospital tents were occupied by a couple of companies of cadets.

" I'm not going to say that everything in the company was all right. There was absolute mismanagement, and the wliole s'ecrot of it was that there seemed to bo no one responsible. When our officers growled about food, the hrigait'er-quarfermastipr, in his broad Scotch accent, asked, 'Do you want my resignation?' or announced his intention of going out of the camp that nightHe had no idea of provisioning so many men or boys. What ought to have been done was to have given each battalion a cook, and to make each battalion quartermaster responsible for provisioning his own boys. Under such an arrangement each battalion on arriving in camp would have had a hot meal or a cup of coffee waiting for it, instead of having to go to bed hungry, as we did. " From Thursday morning, when some sort of system was arrived at, the arrangements were all right, and if any boy went without plenty of food after that it was 'his' own fault. Our battalion didn't eat up all the food supplied to it. But the sooks were not given enough utensils to do the cooking with, and much of the stuff couldn't be cooked.

"The selection of the site for our tents, the non-erection of them in time, and the placing of twenty hoys in each tent, were the result of liungling pure and simp'e. it was another bungle that sent us home in a train that was too .-'mall for us. The carriages allotted to the Xo. 1 battalion were far too few.

"Tf this exhibition rtf (provisioning troops can be taken as an indication or the efficiency or resourcefulness of the Defence Department, then I pjty tne New Zealand troops if ever they're needed for active service in the dominion.

■Unfavorable comment is made upon the fact that the headquarters staff, instead of living in camp, as Colonel Loveday invariably did, merely came out occasionally from Wellington, the rest of the time being s'pent. no doubt, in the vicinity of the Field-Marshal.

"In conclusion, will you let me say a word or two about, our chief? Major Samlford was the right man in the right place. J lis -25 years of volunteering experiences, with so many encampments, stood him_in good stead. But for him we'd neve had a pretty rough time, I can tell yen, and wo thought more of him than ever at the conclusion of the camp. _ In tJie interests of the cadet movement."" hope he'll long be ia charge of the battalion."

By Telegraph.—Press Association

Hastings, February 28.

Dr. De Lisle, officer in charge "of the Hawkc's P.c.y Scouts, .strongly" protests against the charges of mismanagement levelled against the Hutt Park camp authorities. He asserts that there were plentiful food supplies, and that the arrangements were perfect for the hoys' comfort. His hoys, he said, wanted nothing.