UNIVERSAL TRAINING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9650, 15 November 1909, Page 5

UNIVERSAL TRAINING.

By Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND, November 13. "I4hink that bir Joseph Ward nas risen tojthe occasion in adopting universal itraining," said Lieut.-Colonel Patterson], officer commanding the Auckland *(larrison Artillery, when interviewed. "It has been a mystery to me wtyy she did not adopt it aooner, but i&i the has said he left it until the peqple showed that they wanted it, and rihat .they have wanted it they have .certainly shown. The physical and moral advantages to be gained by adcpfliijg a system of universal training are incalculable, and from the point view of defence, I am confident the .inception Qof the scheme will prove .an epoch in our history. The full benefits will not at first be realised, but it is when we begin to look ten or twenty years ahead that we see what it really means. According tu a state ment made by Sir J-osqph Ward before leaving New ZeJand to attend the Imperial Defence Conference, there are at present some 185,000 men capable of bearing arms in New Zealand. It will, be seen, therefore, that in about twinty years' time, when this scheme had had a .thorough trial, we shall have some 200,000 trained and in training ready to bear arms. We are not likely, so far as I can see, to meet with any gerious emergency in this part of the world for the next twenty years, and" at the end of that time, with 200,000 men available, I should say, taking into consideration the matter of distance, that we should then be easily able to cope with any enemy likely to come along. The scheme, in my opinion, is absolutely sound, and guarantees the safety of New ZeaJ land from Invasion by a foreign f je."