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when and where it could be fitted in with their ordinary work. Considerable improvement has been made wherever these instructors have' been at work. Drill pay at the same rate as for N.C.O.s of the Permanent Force has been allowed, according to the work actually performed. Recommendations have been made in a separate memorandum for the appointment of the minimum sta.lT necessary to train these officers and male students and the cadets in the cities. During the year a reversion was made to two-rank drill, and tho necessary amendments to the Infantry Manual were compiled. Two-rank drill is peculiarly suitable for the Junior Cadets, owing to the limited area of drill-grounds available at many of the schools. The room hitherto leased from O'Brien and Co. as an armoury and store-room at a rental of £53 per annum has been given up, and an armoury has been built on the Defence grounds at Buckle Street at a cost of £25, thus effecting a saving of £53 per annum. The Musketry Instructions have been replaced by an up-to-date manual during the year. Much consideration has been given to the question of how to obtain the maximum of training in rifle shooting \viih a minimum of inconvenience and expense, and to this end it has been decided to encourage the establishment of miniature-cartridge ranges at or near as many of the schools as possible, and to subsidise, £1 for £1. amounts raised locally. A Manual of Regulations giving details and diagrams showing how to select sites for and eonstnu t these ranges has been compiled during the year. Already 31 of these ranges have been approved, and many more are under consideration. The ranges are generally 25 yards in length, and are for use by -22 rifles and short ammunition. Five hundred -22 Winchester rifles and 500,000 rounds of •22 ammunition were purchased for this purpose during the year. The regulations for target practice have been revised. The course is divided into (a) instructional practice and (b) (nullification practice, and careful individual instruction is insisted upon before cadets are permitted to undergo the qualification practices. Whilst I am entirely in favour of insisting on every cadet within a reasonable distance of a range firing a specified course of target practice each year, I am equally strongly opposed to making it compulsory for a team from every unit to compete for shields, medals, &c. Such compulsory competitions afford little training to the cadets A glance at the target registers for these competitions for any year will show that a very large number of the boys were not sufficiently trained in shooting to warrant their taking part in these competitions—in fact, many of them have fired at three ranges— 100, 150, and 2(K) yards- without once hitting the target. The conditions for the current year provide that each cadet shall fire twenty-nine rounds at preliminary training, and afterwards twenty-one rounds qualification practices but in the latter no cadet is permitted to proceed to a longer range until he has made an average of magpies at the shorter range ; and the teams for the compulsory competitions for shields, medals, &c, are selected from the cadets making the highest scores in the qualification practices. I have dealt with this question at length, because shooting forms a very important part of the cadet's training, and requiros to be carried out on sound lines. I therefore recommend that for the future all competitions be optional. I find it necessary to reorganize the whole system, to have officers properly appointed, and seniority clearly determined. Lord Kitchener's visit showed the necessity for this. In many of the battalions there are nearly a hundred miles distance between some of the companies, and mobilization is not only difficult but expensive. An area of country will be assigned to each battalion commander, and all units formed in that area will be under his control until the number warrants the formation of a second battalion, when the area, will be divided and a second commander appointed. Battalion commanders are. under the new regulations, assuming more responsibility in the interior economy of their commands ; and so long as they are able and willing to do the work, good results will follow, and a good system of administration and command will In , established, and will be applicable to the higher formations of the Defence scheme later on. I am aware that there are those who do not consider battalion organization necessary for Junior Cadets. 1 contend that it was always very necessary, and under the new scheme is even more necessary than hitherto, since officers are permitted to undergo examinations for substantive commissions, and, as the examinations are to be the same as for the officers of the Territorial Force, command of a company in a battalion for captain, and battalion drill for major will have to be taken, and without battalions officers would have no chance of preparing for their examinations. But the strongest point in favour of the battalion organization is the facility it offers for the delegation of a considerable amount of work to between thirty and forty battalion commanders, assisted by their adjutants (distributed over the Dominion), who can deal with many matters of a local nature, instead of every individual unit having to deal directly with headquarters for everything. The advantage of battalion organization was apparent in the mobilisation and training of the cadets for Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener's reviews. Inspection by Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. During the visit to this Dominion of Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener in February and March, 1910, the Junior Cadets were mobilised at Dunedin, Christchurch/ Wellington, and Auckland respectively from all parts of the Dominion in close proximity with the railways, except Nelson and the West Coast of the South Island, and were reviewed by Lord Kitchener, who expressed himself as being very pleased with the excellent musters at each centre, the appearance] and steadiness of the cadets, and their fine marching, adding that they were splendid material for the defence of the count rv. In a farewell message to the people of New Zealand the Field-Marshal said, inter <di<t. that the New Zealand cadet system struck him as admirable in every way, as it undoubtedly improves the physical development of the boys, and, by the_discipline inculcated, gives them an excellent preparation for their future careers. The following was specially written by Lord Kitchener for the School Journal: —

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