HOW TO ARM AND DRILL A COLONIAL FORCE.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 832, 1 July 1871, Page 2

HOW TO ARM AND DRILL A COLONIAL FORCE.

The following pungent remarks aro made by an " Old Colonist" in the "Thames Advertiser":—The .short breech-loader is the weapon ; uo muzzle-loader should be tolerated in the field. Silence is essential iu all operations against the Maori, and no man can be quiet or silent in loading with any ottier gun. 1 come now to the important subject of drill. The first consideration is perfection in the use of the rille. Rapid shooting from tho snoulder should be practised, and eneo uaged by the offer of the champion's priza tor the highest score. It is the only way to cultivate that perfect sympathy between the hand and the eye —that rare gift so tew men possess, and without which, in the greater or less degree, no man can become a good or great, shot. A native is seen for a moment, but that moment is death by the man who shoots from the shoulder; and in the field how many chances will the practiser of Hythe positions get? Not one in six months. Shooting at stationary targets is the greatest mistake in the world for making a quick shot from the shoulder. The man assumes some preposterous attitude, takes a long aim, thinks at last he covers the mark, pulls the trigger, and may be he misses the target. Not one in twenty pulls the trigger in obedience to that wonderful sympathy which tells the possessor he has made a bull's eye ere the bullet reaches the object. The running drill is very little better; the cart is before the horse in the whole practice. The men should be stationary, the target on the move. An enemy is rapidly running across at one hundred yards, how many of those who make a bull's eye at the target could judge the distance a-head of the man for the bullet to kill him ? Very few. The constant use of a rest encourages a man to look for something better than his shoulder—something, in fact, in which he has a greater confidence. Having acquired a perfect command of his rifle from the shoulder, I see no objection to the rest of the drill prescribed under authority of the regulations, lit teaches a young man to walk well, improves his figure, and licks him into shape and manly bearing. Its use in the field is another question. I will now apply my introductory sentence. We require a force in New Zealand for a special service—to meet a savage foe in a wild and unreclaimed country. Experience has taught us that the military education of the Imperial trdops is not the sort we require, and yet, with all the cost to the debit of the country, we train our colonial soldiers by the same rule, arm them with clumsy and unsuitable weapons, hamper them with accoutrements which shonld be consigned to the limbo of ancient military stores, teach them to shoot according to the Hythe regulations, in constrained and unnatural positions, and lift up their scores in the newspapers to the admiring gaze of the multitude—rather teach them to hit the rapidly moving figure of a man four times out of five at 200 yards distance.