THE ENGLISH VOLUNTEER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1621, 16 August 1887, Page 3

THE ENGLISH VOLUNTEER.

Speaking of the Whitsuntide maneeuvrea of the English Volunteers, the Daily News remarks The Volunteers did good work for themselves and for the nation. Their habitual way of spending their holidays would hate delighted those educational reformers of an earlier and somewhat discredited school who sought to combine instruction with amusement. In one way or other, yesterday, thousands of men went through most of the experiences of military life. In many places they were under canvass, and some of them are to have no better shelter till the end of the week. At Claremont they had a field day, following a march from town, and before nightfall they had covered over 20 miles of road, out and home, to say nothing of their labors in the field. The inarch was made in thorough military style, and the cyclists were employed to maintain communication between the front and rear of the long column. This, perhaps, ia not thoroughly military, but the sooner it becomes so for certain kinds of service the better. In many other ways the force showed that it is rapidly learning to suffice to itself. Some regiments provided their own cooks, instead of having to rely upon a civilian caterer, «nd one is to be credited with a praiseworthy attempt to utilise its chaplain by taking him out on the march. The Essex men have besn marching for three days and billeting at night. We are in a golden time of highest promise for the Volunteers. The old official indifference must be held to have disappeared for ever after the remarkable paper read at the Unitsd Service Institution (he other day. As that paper showed, our military authorities have given the force a definite and an important place ia their scheme of mobilisation, and they are about to qualify them for a better one by helping them to become good field artillery. There cannot be a doubt that the zeal of Volunteers will more than equal that of the Government. There was a danger when the zerl was ail on one side, but that is past. Now that the feeling is shared by both parties they act and react on each other in the moat beneficial way. In good understanding, as in bad, somebody must begin, and in the present instance that honor belongs to the Volunteers.