HAURAKI ENGINEERS.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3691, 23 October 1880, Page 3

HAURAKI ENGINEERS.

A good muster of the Hauraki Engineers, Captain Small in command, assembled at their drill hall last night for

a lecture and practical instruction by Lieut. Denbyin the necessary points of fascine and gabion making. The 60 men having been told off, each squad of 10 being under its proper non-commissioned officer, the fascine horse was set up> tools distributed, and the various squads instructed alternately in the process of making 18 feet military fascines, in the meantime a gabion bed and the necessary tools had been placed in another part of the hall, and as the squads had finished* their fascines they took their turn at the gabions, each party of men racing with the others as to who would get their task completed' in the shortest time, and all working together most harmonioulsy. Of course nearly the same materials had had to be nsed over and over again. The straight long titree for fascines had to be cut at Tararu, and the supplejacks for gabions came from over two miles up Tararu Creek, the whole being carted in early , yesterday morning. Gabions and fascines are generally made in the field as required, and th^itakes used in their construction are consequently driven into the ground, but as this could not be done in a hall with a boarded floor, it was necessary to provide things that could be so used, had been"been constructed by Bandsman Beardon from drawings in the authorised book of instruction in military engeneerv ing, and are made to unscrew and pack in a^ery small space, every part being marked so as to be capable of being set up and used by persons who have never seen them before. After the parade a meeting of the corps was held, at which a shooting committee was appointed, with instructions to the effect that in future no prize would be competed for by the members of the corps until it was actually in the hands of the shooting committee. A very agreeable evening was spent, the usual monotony of company drill being "well missed" occasionally, and a good feeling and esprit de corps engendered, helping to bind' the company together so that all work like one man.