VOLUNTEER & DEFENCE NOTES

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 35, 10 February 1909, Page 7

VOLUNTEER & DEFENCE NOTES

'. y -'■■■'''■■■■■" Secretaries of all.volunteer corps ThrougU- ' out the Auckland" district are inrlted to contribute to thl« column. "Rifleman" will be glad to receive «ny Item,of special or general -interest for' publication, not merely concerning' town companies, bat ■ equally concerning the country corps. It la desired in these notes to keep volunteers - throughout the province well informed In new* of volunteer interest, and it Is only • bys-th* co operation of "country corps wltn , the editor that this can be accomplished satisfactorily. -News Intended for publlcai tion in the current week's Notes should' be iln this office by i-Tuesday 'it the latest. , They, should be signed by a' responsible of- - fldal, not ' for publication, but only as a ■ guarantee of good faith. ;■. .-.-•" The No. 1 NatiTes will hot parade on Moh- . day evening next. i .. Tne No. 1 Natives , signallers will hold the annual examinations'at the Drill Hall on Monday, February 22nd. xi T . he D SQmaton- (Cambridgre) will fire i their marksmen's course on Saturday next, i and N.C.O.'s will also be examined by Staff. . Sergt.-M*Jor Coleman. ' The Victoria Rifle* have thle season won w e .s ai £ nriy CUP.-the Gordon Shield, the , Waihl Rooster, and the South Auckland , Banner, in teams matches. , Colonel Tuson, one of the Defence Coun- • cil, Iβ at present- in Auckland' in connco ■ tion with the mounting of the new mark T . guns at the Jtorth Head. No. 1-Company Garrison Artillery put no a Dominion record at Fort lakapuna from , the quick-firing gun, and the figures are • causing keen competition. . There Is a possibility of the Raglan * Rl . fles beUl S consiaerably . strengthened in the near future by the , formation of a troop at Kawhia. The No. 1 Natives are stlU in a flourishIng condition, and new members continue to • enrol, three more new members throwing in their lot with the company on Monday [ The field section of the Engineers did some heavy demolition whilst In camp with ' guncotton, etc., both on land and In the water. The Instruction received was very ; good indeed. , ■ ■ The Inspector-General, Colonel Davles, » ,»T,V, lns P ects No. 2 Company Garrison; Artillery on the evening- of February IT at Fort Cautley, and the No. 3 Company at [ Fort Takapuna on the 18th. ' : The Te Mata troop of the Eaglan Mount- . Ed Rifles paraded at Kauroa on Saturday laet. There was a good muster Sergt.Major Coleman Instructed the men In skirmishing, in view of the manoeuvres during the week's trek. The Piako Mounted Elfles fired the marksmen's course on Saturday last, under the supervision of Capt. J. D. Barton, of the regimental staff. This squadron is recruiting well of late, and gives promise of coming to the trek camp with a large muster. Lleut.-Col. Bell, commanding Second Regi- ■ ment A.M.R., and Capt A.' : S Brewls, • Medical Staff Corps, were present at the 1 ! No. 1 Garrison Artillery camp at Fort' 1 Bastion during the big gun practice lust week, and remained until the camp broke ' up on Saturday. j There are two garrison artillery companies in camp at the Shore—No. 2 Com-' pany at Fort Cautley, and No. 3 Company' at Fort Takapuria. Patter- ' son is in camp with the No. 2 Company. Both companies will fire" their annual aeries ' from the big gune towards the close of next : week. j _______ I The Victoria Rifles again won the banner for the teams competition at the South i 1 'Auckland Hlfle Association meeting, the second team of the corps, composed of i J. J. Preston, John Preston, W. Brownlee, !P. McCarthy,; and Carlson, winning by , three points from the Auckland Mounted. ■ Hides, who were second, i [ As there is a vacancy for a captain In the : engineers, it is probable that a gentleman ! of considerable experience will be nominat- - ed nest Monday. As two of the lieutenants • will be leaving the corps, one going to the 1 Old Country, there are likely to be some ' changes. I believe some of these vacancies ■ will shortly be filled. I The No. 1 Company N.Z. Native Rifles ; (Copt. A. Coutts) paraded at the-Drill Hall ; on Monday evening for the annual lnspec- , tlon of Government property held by the J company. Major Bartlett, who conducted j ', the inspection, expressed himself as highly ; pleased with the cleanliness and general ; smartness of the men, there being 47 on , parade. The No. 1 Natives concluded; their eompe- , titione for the gold ring presented, by Corp. ' Johnson. Private A. Purchase proved the ; winner, after an Interesting battle. He I required 63 points out of a possible TO, and he proved quite equal to the task. Capt. Coutts took the opportunity of presenting " this trophy on Monday evening,, when there j was a splendid muster of the company. ! It is many years since the rifle championship came to Auckland, H. Doughty, of . the A Battery, being the last winner; ; Capt. Cox, who won the coveted star, by ' Hilling fourth place, in 19Oi, and Carlsen and Patrick, who filled sixth place, have ! been the nearest to. It since Doughty's win. (This year Auckland will have about 85 . representatives, and should make a bold . bid for the championship. > Whilst the Engineers were In camp, a tug-of-war, in which considerable interest , was taken, took place between the No. 1 s section (signallers) and No. 2 section (electrical). The teams were six men aside, and best two out of three pulls. The signallers won after a hard fight. The match was so much aside. The winning team was: Sergt. Dow, Corp. Blomfleld, L.-Corp. Peare, Sappers Hastie, Hunt, and Penlington. A combined field day for the King Coun- . try rifle clubs has been arranged for the 24th February, when the Upper King . Country Rifle Cliib, Ohura, Kakahi and Kio 1 Kio Clubs will assemble at Kakahi, where i field firing will be practised. A meeting will . be held after the field exercises ti> consider the question of providing a 'trophy for an- > nual competition, and also consider the ) question of adopting a uniform. The Newton 'Rifles will be represented at : the New Zealand Defence Forces Rifles i Associations. championship meeting at Trentham in March by 7 members, viz., t Sergt. MacKerras, Corp. Mngee, Privates ; Murphy. Boys, Sorensen, Lyford, and Hall, i The team Is a fairly strong one, and its • members should give a good account of i themselves in all the. teams matches, as well . as in the championship series. Sergt. Maci Kerras Is manager of the team, and Corp. Magee captain. > i Speaking on the question of universal ; military training in the House of Lords on : 28rd November last. Lord Roberts concluded thus: "We are links in a living ■ chain pledged to transmit intact to posterity 1 the glorious heritage we have received ' from those, who have gone before us in " this place. (Cheers.) We know the world is altering, and, Indeed, that the conditions ' of international politics in both hemispheres 1 are changing with unexampled rapidity. ' Upon the one hand, it is agreed that naval ; development. In many countries slmultane- • ously, Iβ bringing about a fundamental change in the conditions of sea power Upon the other hand, we as an Empire ! have the most extensive land frontier In existence, although our military resources ' are insignificant by comparison with those ; of the Great Powers of Europe and Asia. ; It is the most vital necessity of our situation that we should have in the future, as ' in the past, not only the strongest and most powerful Navy, but) .complete '. strategic freedom for that Navy. (Hear, r hear.) Under these new conditions, we can ' never again enjoy that freedom without a total change in our military arrangements. . The Navy, under present 'circumstances, la \ fettered to Home waters as it never was ; before, nnd without a military force suffii clent of Itself to make Invasion hopeless J and to keep these islands secure under the , initial circumstances of war, it surely must . be plain to everyone. who will give the I matter a thought that our military weak- , ness, If continued, will be the probable , cause of the loss of our naval, supremacy. . It is my ~ absolute belief that without a . military organisation more adequate to the i certain perils of the future, our Empire i will fall from u» and our power will pan away." (Cheers.)

-On .the last Sunday In camp the Engineers held their: "At Some.'! The weather wan grand, and there w»» a big crowd, of Tlaltors, who all thoroughly enjoyed, themselves. Amongst those present were: Col. Wolfe, Capt. Pllklngton, Ueut. Smytbe, ReT, Gray-JWxon; Surg.-Capt. Dr. Porter (Chaplain and Surgeon respectively), Capt. Dawson, Lieut. SUera, Major Barclay (Duaedln Engineers),"eic. '' ■•; •' for representative* at Wellington rifle meeting, held by the Victoria Rlflee, the following succeeded iv win-, nlng their Cox, Mclvor, Jones, Jack, >Yeo, .McCarthy, Brownlee, and J. B. -Preston. Tbe following members are also attending the meeting:—Capt. Cox, .Sergts. Anderson, Corp. Patrick, J. J. Preston, John Preston, F. Preston,- Carlsen, Rowe, and Tobln. The corps will be very strongly represented, and should give a good account of its shooting strength. The Newton Rifles flred the second competition for silver cup and-Major Myers* gold medal, on ..Saturday, at Penrose. Conditions: 30 shots and two' sighting shots at 200, sealed handicaps. The following; are the highest' scores:—Pte. Sorenaen, 91 (handicap —), total 01; Sergt. Codlln, 68 (22) —80;'Pte. Friar, 68 (24)—90; Corp. Lyford, 88 (—), 88; Corp. McGee, 87 (—), 87; Pte. Boys, 86 (—), 8»; Pte. Murphy, 86 (—), Bβ; Sergt. MacKerras, 83 (—), 83; Capt. Plugge, 83 (—), S3; Pte. Khodee, B5 (25) ■ —so. ■ ■ ■ The Engineers .came out .of .camp on Friday morning last, after undergoing a course of Iβ days' training. The? camp was heli at Fort Cantley, and looking at it from a working standpoint,,it is without doubt the hardest and most successful camp the corps hag ever held. The engineering staff officer for the Dominion, Lieut. Dlgnan, was with the corps throughout the camp, and wltb him was Staff-Sergt Major Melkle. Enough praise cannot be said of the untiring efforts on the part of both of the officers in giving Instruction. Nothing was too much,trouble for them, and to a large extent the success of the camp was due to them. One evening the electrical section went out with the cable cart, and laid about 4 miles of wire, and connected up the telephones. This section has made wonderfully good progress, and was under the command of Lieut Butler and Sergt. .Marks. The field sections flld some particularly good work In laying out wire entanglements, both high and low wire faclnes, gabions, etc. The sections were under Lieut. Hewson, Sergt. Burgess, and Sergt. Frlcker. The signalling section got in a lot of good work with the flags la the morning and hellos on Saturdays and Sundays,, and used the line lamp and Begble lamps at night. They got Into communication with the H.M.B. Cambrian in the stream, Fort Bastion, and a party of the College Bines at Mt. Bden. There were a good many recruits in this section, and the work done by them wae particularly good, four of them who only joined a month ago qualifying for a badge; tale speaks well for Instruction received from the staff officers. ! The section was tinder Sergt. Dow. The corps is , only wanting a few more men, aud next year will probably, see the company making a big bid for the Engineer Shield of the Dominion. It Is hoped that this year it will secure second place. One word about the discipline: This was a particularly good feature about the camp. During the whole camp there was no need to reprimand one ; man, and the lights went out together as soon as the first note of lights out was sounded, there being no disturbance ■after-' wards. The corps should, secure 100 per cent for discipline. The A Battery Field; Artillery, w ho are now putting In their second week under canyag In tie Outer Domain, have been, end are, working hard to reach the highest standard of efficiency and win the coveted shield which Is competed for every year by the field batteries in; the Dominion. Reveille ; Is at 4.46 a.m., and drill is continued till 6.80 a.m. In the evenings fall in Is sounded at 6.45 and dismiss at 9 p.m., so that it is evident no time Is being lost that can be devoted to training. All ranks are working hard,, and some very satisfactory -results' have been recorded, the gun layers particularly distinguishing themselves. Staff-Sergt ' Major Wilson, K.A., who examined tiese men,, spoke very highly of their efficiency, . which he said bad. not been eaualled In the other batteries, their work "in priming the guns from positions behind coyer—worlr which involves calculations and-a knowledge that would astonish a civilian—being very accurate, all layers passing their exam, with credit. - ' Lieut." Burgess, who baa given considerable, time to 'the training of these men during the past year, has every reason to ( feel proud of his class. The drivers, signallers, and. rangetakers have also been busily engaged. : and" neldsketching and topography have been included in the long list of subjects the field i artilleryman has to learn. Captain Sherson i and subalterns (Lleuts. Burgess, Morton, ■ and McGIIp) -have been supervising' the ! work with S.M. Wilson, who has been i acting in Cipt. Richardson's place during the artillery staff officer's absence. ' Although the time for recreation Is limited, boxing contests, etc., engage the men during the hour before "lights out," and on Sunr day afternoon tbe visitors to the camp were entertained at afternoon tea, the Garrison Band playing a programme of very pleasing music. The discipline of the Battery is splendid, and the men are . "playing the game" in a manner that would "surprise many. The unbroken calm now following "lights out" :is a- thing that was never known to exist in a volunteer camp a few years ago. The annual Ehell-flring will take place beyond Lake - Takapuna at the end of this week, and all ranks. .are. looking forward to a successful result. In view of the success of our garrison artillery," it Is pleasing to. notice that the senior arm of the service Is maintaining its high reputation; end we wish the .field gunners good luck. . . ~. , c . ~ . . ? .,, :