THE TERRITORIALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 63, 3 August 1914, Page 2

THE TERRITORIALS.

TAIiAXAKI STAFF CU-UNGK:-. It has been definitely decided to carry out a redistribution ul the .iJeieiu-e ■ 1 '1 in Tarnnaki, in order to comply wit-li certain suggestions made by the tor-Ceneral of Oversea -Defence J' orcen in his recent report. Hitherto training has often le;"l to considerable overlapping and mui f unaecessary travelling, and it was 110 uncommon thing for two or even three Defence officials to find themselves in one and the same town, all engaged on separate and distinct duties. To overcome this it has been decided to make the training, as far as possible, geographical instead of regimental; that :s to say, that staff will be situated in various centres and the distribution will toe guided mainly by the population to be dealt with, drill centres, etc. In so far as this scheme affects T'aranaki, the following changes will be made immediately: Captain McDonnell, adjutant Eleventh Regiment, who has hitherto been residing in Hawera, will | move to New Plymouth, and with him Regimental Sergeant-Major M'Glade and Quarter-master Sergeant Collins, and automatically the headquarters of the XI Regiment (infantry) will move from Hawera to New Plymouth. Captain McDonnell will now be in charge of the sub-area, extending from jVcw Plymouth to Stratford, and will .have under his control, in addition to the non-comniis-sioned officers already named, SergeantMajor Mahoney (New Plymouth), Ser-geant-Major Heap (Waitara), SergeantInstructor Bonar (Stratford). Captain Dovey similarly will be in charge of a sub-area, extending from Waverley to Eltliam, and including the King 1 Country from Ongarue to Waioum, and will reside at Hawera, which will automatically become the headquarters of the 2nd Mounted Rifles. He will have j under his control: Regimental SergeantI Major Dunham (Hawera), Quarter-master-Sergeant M'Rae (Hawera), Ser-(geant-Instruetor Bodle (Eltham), Ser- , geant-Instructor Bell (Waverley), and I Sergeant-Instructor Thompson (Tau- | marunui).

Captain Stevens, who has hitherto been "area-group officer," will be known as "area commander," and will be responsible for the training and administration of both the sub-areas already named, and will reside at Hawcra, which will be the area headquarters and Central Record Office, and his record clerk will be Stafl'-Sergcant-Major Dallinger. , It is considered by the authorities that the time has now arrived when Territorial officers should enter more into the actual drilling and training of their men. This, as a matter of fact, is largely done at present by our local Taranaki Regiment, but the same does not apply in every other part of the Dominion. Especially is this the case where there is a shortage of officers and where the training is largely done by the permanent staff. It will be the faim and object of the Defence Depart- ' ment to train Territorial officers to assume more responsibility, and thus set i the permanent staff free to deal more! thoroughly with the Senior Cadets and ■ general training section. Rifle clubs, I etc., have not received their fair share 'of attention in the past. The perma- ' nent stall" quartermaster-sergeants will do the bulk of the regimental correspondence under the new scheme, so that Territorial officers will be free to drill and train, and will not he hampered with much office work.

This year, for the backblocks Territorials, if they care voluntarily to do so, eight-day camps at convenient centres, will be held, and men attending these will be excused all other work except the annual 12 days' camp. This, however, will be quite optional during the coming year. Though next year, if such experiments as will be conducted prove successful, it is hoped to make such concentration camps for back-blocks men compulsory, and extend the scope of them to include back-blocks cadets and general training section men. That sm:h camps would enormously reduce travelling to and from of the permanent staff instructors, and by doing so, curtail expenditure, goes without saying; and, further, it is extremely likely that in the long run the sacrifice, of eight days on end, will prove to bo most satisfactory to those who dwell out bac.c and find it hard to attend evening and afternoon parades.—Hawera Star.