SENTRY DUTY IN THE ARMY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1055, 16 January 1883, Page 3

SENTRY DUTY IN THE ARMY.

Why, it is often asked, at about 31 or 32 years of age, dooi the privato soldier usually begin to age rapidly, both in looks and in habit?, while his commissioned or non-com-missioned cJti'Q'nponry, is co.upintirely a young man? 'This early decay,' says Sir Frederick Roberts in an interesting arfci le in the ' Nineteenth Century,'' is in the opinion of many, mainly caused by sentry duty. Sergeants do not beo una prematurely aged, nor soldier servants, nor men employed in the orderly room:—'The true reason for the difference I believe fo bo the excessive night duty which usually falls to the lot of the private soldier. lam quite sure that soldiers should be spared 'sentry g)'as much as possible, and that thai army will be the healthiest in which the men have the greatest number of nights in bed.' Even without this emptkahc testimony from an officer of such experience, the light of nature might have aught us as much. Every Londoner has asked himself a hundred times on wintry nights, as he passes sentries keeping guard over all manner of places that need no guard, what is gained by exposing valuable men to the inclemency of the night ? Why could not policemen, who would ba at liberty to walk freely about, do what guardianship needs to be done ? The Duke of Cambridge, says the Pall Mall Gazette, is probably not open to argument ou the matter, but Parliament, after all, is master, and one wonders why pressure is not put upon Mr Childers from that quirter. It may ssem a trifle, but absurdities of this kind even if trifling, are not calculated to lessen the unpopularity of military service,