The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24. OUR DEFENCE FORCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 29, 24 June 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24. OUR DEFENCE FORCE.

"Sot the seal of thoroughness on a great work already at least half finished." That is the crux of Sir lan Hamilton's advice to New Zealand respecting its military scheme. Good-ad, vice, certainly, for anything worth doing is, as the old saw has it, worth doing well. The General, in the course of his report, a precis of which we published yesterday, is, in the main, complimentary to the work being done by General Godley and his staff. He admits the system is fltill on its trial, and that it is too early yet to pass judgment. He regards the cadet portion of the work as a "fascinating experiment." On it's success or failure depends the answer to be given to the question whether a fighting standard of efficiency can be obtained without ever withdrawing the adult citizen soldier from his civil employment for more than a few days in the year. He believes the "omens are propitious," and that the experiment will prove a success. There is satisfaction to be derived from this anticipation. The Inspector-General has a good word to say of the work of the cadets, but questions whether the cadets collected from the backblocks and sparsely-populated districts show, promise of giving the State an adequate return for the sum expended on their military training. This is not the fault of the lads themselves, but of the system which, if it cannot be improved, should be abolished. In its place He suggests, as has been suggested more than once 'by non-military observers recently, that the country lads should be collected for a couple of weeks at certain centres and thoroughly drilled by competent instructors. Another alternative he suggests is to follow the SwißS system and dispense with cadet training, substituting recruit training at fixel centres for a period of not less than eight weeks per annum for lads attaining their eighteenth year. This suggestion will not commend itself to the people of New Zealand. They would prefer to act upon the former recommendation, and the extension of the cadet movement, cutting down the period of service for Territorials. In regard to recruit training, the General makes the same recommendations as in the case of the cadets, namely, the nefor concentrated training as against the present system of casual drilling by peripatetic instructors. Ho shows how the system can bo made suitable to our requirements. The organisation in the main at present he characterises as soundly conceived and sensibly carried out, and remarks that good progres's has been made in every direction. Like the experienced, battle-worn soldier he is, he lays considerable stress upon the need for discipline, which he lightly declares can come only from efficient training. He believes, however, we have the material out of which good soldiers are made. In fact, he declares it to be "second to none in the world." The army is well armed and well equipped, and he makes various recommendations making for the improvement of the system, preventing overlapping and putting things on a scientific footing. His recommendations do not entail any increase in cost—rather the opposite. Gathered from his report is the fact that the foundations of our military training system have been well laid, and that in a short time we will have at our disposal, at no very great cost, a thoroughly efficient and worklike army, capable of taking the field and holding its own with any disciplined force that may he brought against it. Weaknesses and deficiencies there are, and the Inspector-General refers to them in a frank and friendly way. It indeed would be surprising If there were not, for our scheme is quite a new departure in military training. It takes time to create an efficient military system out of comparatively new material, but the measure oE success already achieved justifies one in anticipating that in another two or three years' time the system will, in the picturesque words of Sir lan Hamilton, be such as to enable New Zealand to look with hope instead of misgiving over the broad expanse of the Pacific whilst saying to herself—"Come one, come all; Mount Cook shall fly From its firm base as soon as I"