DEFENCE NOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3127, 25 January 1911, Page 7

DEFENCE NOTES.

THE COMMANDANT’S ACTIVITY. (By “Reveille.”) Major-General A. F. Godley, C. 8., Commandant of the New Zealand Forces, returned to Wellington on Wednesday last. On Thursday afternoon officers commanding mounted regiments and infantry battalions in the V eli ington miiltary district were to assemble in Wellington", and after a preliminary conference with the Officer Commanding the District (Lieut.-Colonel E. W. C. Chaytor), were to meet General Godley in conference upon matters relating to organisation. On 'Friday the Commandant was to visit Featherston, for the purpose of witnessing the D. Batteryshoot, and on the Monday following (January 23),- lie will attend the First Wellington Rifle Battalion’s field manoeuvres at Karori. On Tuesday, January 24, the Commandant will inspect the Garrison Artillery at Fort Helburne, Ngahauranga. N. Z. OFFICERS FROM HOME. The four New Zealand officers sent Home the year before last for military training—Lieuts. Grant, H. Whyte, and J. E. Barton, of Auckland, and Robertson, of Dunedin- —will return to the Dominion about March next. All four officers went through a course at the Hythe School of Musketry, and were subsequently attached to regular regiments, taking part in manoeuvres at various centres in England. Every other year four New Zealand officers are to be sent Home for training, and a selection will have to be made this year. Under the new defence scheme New Zealand is in need of well-trained officers, and the experience gained at Home by the four subalterns who are just completing their course should stand both them and the Dominion in good stead at the present time. It is not quite clear what positions these officers will hold on their return, but it is suggested in well-informed centres that ‘each of the four military districts will have the services of one of the officers, but -whether they will be appointed A.A.G.’s or given some outside position is not definitely known. Major-General Godley has "a thorough grip of the whole situation as far as present organisation —or lack of it —is concerned, and the few changes he has already made are only the forerunners of many more.

A PROBLEM FOR THE ENGINEERS'. At Malianga Bay the Wellington Engineers, wlio went into camp on Saturday last for their annual sixteen days’ course of training, have now settled down to their programme of work, which is an ambitious oue. The Engineers are what, in the army, are described_ as specialists in “handy” work —bridging rivers, blowing up bridges, making entrenchments, fortifying field positions, laying communications in the shape ol telephone and telegraph lines, land mines, alarm flares, and so on—and all these accomplishments the Wellington Engineers have set themselves out to become proficient in. There are about TO men in camp at nresent, and after the Civil Service examinations are over this number will be increased considerably. A standing problem for the Engineers is the supply of horses. Since the handy raen are expected'' to lay communications and these with all possible speed, a field cable-cart, horsed, is an essential for the field telegraph section of the corps. On a recent • night a squad was detailed to establish communication with Dorset Point, and would have done so had not the hireling steed that was harnessed up to the cable-cart positively refused to budge. _ As the saying is, the animal would “neither dance, sing, nor hold the candle.” He was a jibber, presetting a deaf ear and an extremely thick hide to the encouragements of the driver, who soon reached the limits bf Parliamentary speech. By the end of the week the various tasks mapped out on the programme of work will be more or less completed.