COLONIAL DEFENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 928, 4 June 1878, Page 3

COLONIAL DEFENCE.

Sib,—This colony is in a nice fix to meet a drilled and armed foe like Russia. There is not in.the whole of New Zealand a properly atmedor ; . equiped battery of artillery, a" squadron of cavalry, or mounted riflemen, of a conqjany of rifles that could, with tents, camp equipage, &e., take the field to-morrow, or is there even the nucleus of au organization .to furnish a transport cart, an ambulance waggon, or the most crude system.of commissariat. The only thing we have at hand good is the rough material (none better), the New # Zealand youth, but they sadly want discipline and training. We however have a Whitraore! a Keader! aJ?ollen! above all an Atkinsou! to lead pur,,inen,; „ The first made a name by doing nothing in iho, late war, with every, chance in his favour of money men and material'; 1 the second is cele-» brated for'following the advice given by Talleyrand 1 to a young deplomatist, " Surlontpoint de iele" during the same period as ho was quietly living in Wellington drilling the heroes of Nga-te-6-te-miinu, and achioving that remarkable invention .the paraspl-cum-oarbine-cuse with which the Ar/hed Constabulary are provided. Pollen, as Government agent under Vogel, floodol the colony with muzzle-loaders in 1871: 'an arm that has-ceased to be used since Sadowa, in IS6G, showing himself a true Conservative and an enemy to innovation. Atkinson! —what;shall I say about him beyond his'having been a spleudid scout at Waireka; he was found during the hottest of; the fire reconnpiter-; ing alone behimi a flax biish, a mile in tho roar of h|4Vi?ro r fc3' I have no fear

*o^*E^glaM'Bu£fefing r 'r navaldefeat.Tf * she does, itj wOuldnbe no vefy difficult matter for Russia to conquer and annex New Zealand in o\u- present unprepared and inefficient Btatc—without ;a man to lead us who has ever shown the slightest capability of so doing. We have arms with bores as various as could be seen in ; ,Unqle. Sam's opening of the ''Corifederute rebellion."* "We, also, Have -rlike the Americans, both North and lot' of pretentious humbugs, such as colonels,; mayors, captains, etc., whom I verily believe could not put a company through its drill to save their lives; and'who are dependent for giving even the simplest word of cammand to the prompting of their buglers (as in Auckland), cir drill-sergeants in a place not a hundred miles- from Hamilton. I never look at a troop or company of volunteers but with mixed feelings of admiration and pity—the first for their physique, youth and energy, and the second : that they should be commanded by men of the Whitmore, Atkinson, and Reader type, who, if ever they do lead them on active service Avill trap them to their deaths after starvation, ignominy, and defeat.—l am, etc., Paethenope. . Hamilton, May ?5.