Room, Major Holliday, Commandant of the Force, ocoupied the chair; and there were present, Capt. Barnes Dallas, Capt. Morrison, Capt. Harvie, Capt. Lanning, Lieut, Noel, Lieut. Rex, Lieut. Anderson, Lieut, Buchanan and a large number of non-commissioned officers and members of the Corps, Major Hotttpay to-night is called in accordance with the instructions contained in the Rules issued by the Municipal Council a short tine back, which declare that there shall be a general meeting of the Brigade at least once a your. The principal subject to lay before the Brigade is the new system of drill whioh we are going to give a trial to. Most agent deal of anxiety command by the ques-lar attendance at drill. At that time it was decided by " majority of ficers that id begin to make 8 go more briskly, that drills should be culled ut shorter interval than had been customary before, Somehow or other the achome has not proved sv successful as was pated, and now we have another way to propose; that call up the Briyade for a short of training, keeping them hard at it while they are up, and th go di and not call' them up again until th period comes round, except on Occasions, such as the arrival of an illustrious visitor here, or an occasional field-day with the men-of-war in harbour, The proposal hae been pretty well veutiluted. Some of course think it might nut prove a support it in rather a sun-8 The proposal is that next month we call up the "Brigade for one montl's training. [tien month peculiarly which very little in th ment is going on. Cricket have not commenced, cross-couutey riding la over, and the evenings are nvt long enough for any particular amusements, while they are long enough for what we want. Theidex is to have #0 many eveninge—Iinte after noons—for drill in each week, and to have a regular battalion e drill on the Saturday after: ave tu decide lit as to how put in during the month, proposal of this kind it must in mind that when men are motith—they are apt to forget therr work Dut if we call them up day after day for month or ao, five or six days " week, i will be found—this is not a mera theer, it has been proved—after a week or so they have got up their work, and the rem fow woaks grind it into them so t are not likely to forget it. found in the militia, with the rank and file, that when the period of training eu round, though they are a little rusty, still they have jad auch good trai ig that the really have nut lost so very much. If th be 80, it will assist very much in keeping up the efficiency of the force. 1 propose to call up the Brigade for training on Monday next, the 8rd March, and go down again on the 29th. 'That gives us four clear weeks, We had an officers' meeting a few nights ago, and all the officers came to the same opinion xs myself, that if the mru would throw their hearts into it and work for aahort time it would be " success, but that it entirely depended on th ing up. I propose to call s drill jings in the week, and to have exch week a Saturday-afternoon parade. I say advisedly that I propose to do so, because assurance from the that they will turn out it is no yood yom; But ler the circumstances, nothing to call them away in the shape of shoo! going up country and soon, there is no reason why they should not give a pledge to the officers that they will come out and work during that period. The proposal is to call them up on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from half-past five till half-past six, and on Saturday for battalion drill from three till half-past five or aix, as we can manag Artillery will the Police Compound to themselves, and four Companies will each have one of the ted to them: and they will fall in there every and be drilled by their own office: will be no uniforms, so that all a man w have to do will be to keep his rifle and sidearms wt the office and go straight down to des on Saturday yous. the will have to wear arms. I ant you to take ther you are prepared to really ari zt impossible for us to pretend to be efficient unless we take some trouble in the work, It is not only unfair to yourselves, for the best men in the world must get rusty, but itis unfair to the officers Suditis Qufair to myself. An ollicer re-ing them a man. Ee has accustomed to g the men; he ins) to takes; and he has to get accustomed to own voice. He can only got accustomed to thia things by having a body of meu to handle Unless you are ready to meet as bedly, you caunut train your own officers unless you train them you will never be ble to place any reliance on them. As regards myself, my principal study is in handling troops in a big body, and however much man may study his red-book he cannot do that unless he has his field before him; it is a case of actually learning the thing by practical experience. Since I lave been in command of the Brigade I do not think Ihave had two proper battalion drills the whol time, and in three years a man must get rusty; he cannot help it, however earnest he may be in the work," I have laid the general proposal before you to-night, and What I want to ask from the Brigade io assurance that they will support in this matter. We do not think we are asking too much for the short question. If the members will cannot be heavy engazements.at thet time of the day—and buckle to, I feel perfect confidence in assuring you that the thing rust bea success, The standard of efliciency I propose is that out of sixteen company drills and four battalion di order to qualify, attend ten d three battalion dri month, which we have a right to expe from every mem the old system when you are up for train ing during the whole twelve monthe. Of course there are business engagements w ich cannot be set aside; but we propose to meet that difficulty by hi ing every might company drill in a large new godown in Yuen Ming Yuen oad, which has been kindly lent us for the purpose, and which will be lighted with the electric light. So that if a man cannot attend own company drill we have to ask him to make it a rule to come that evening to the big room in this new godown. It is a very large room—160 feot long by 60 brosd—tind he can got as good a drill in that room ash though it Compan that he should, i Camp The i sideration, I propose to hold the 29th. ' Of course our own anniversary is the 4th April; but that is getting alittle war the races, and engagements are begin to spring up, and I think it would be better for us to carry out the whole thing in one consecutive action; that is to say, go right on with our drills, finishing off the last day with the inspection, and then lave done with it, Ido not think, if you will take the thing into considerstion, we are asking you to put in too much work. When man undertakes to wear the Muvicipal uniform he should remember that it carries with it an obligation, and he ought to look the thing in the face and carry it out. Ibis not a case of swaggering about in a red coat, but of potting ow that red coat and owing that cis one of the men who are able and ready to vive a willing nnd if necessary. With reference to the class-firing, there been a great ditliculty about I the dus-firing hag not been soon as the atti to decide upon it, ides is that the first week in March wid be entirely devoted to the class-ug by No. 1G second week to that by No. 2 Ao., the third woak by No. 3 Cv., and the fourth week by No. 4 Ca. The meu will be notified boforekand, and they can get the thing right off and not have it hanging over, The first-class firing we ally that, ure than of L shall be gi hear from rit he has thought about what alking about the other evening at our meeting and anything fresh has curred to him; and shall be viad to hear from any member of the Brigade if he 8 any objection that may arise from the suggestion now before you.
Sergeant Goxvon moved that the scheme suggested by Major Holliday should be accepted.
Major Houtiay, after a consultation with theotherotticers, said—Withreferouce to the proposal before the Bri tiou has been pointed out. la not ao difficult for men fo atten to ensure eficiency, it is a differ with three out of four battalion parades therefore I propose to allow a man who can put in only two battalion parades to put in two extra company drills, He will thus attend twelve company drills and two Grills, allowing two company drilla to take the place of the battalion forced to leave out. At the same time it is ea very desirable that the men should meet in large numbers on the field that I must impress upon you the necessity of appearing at the battalion drills ws often as possible they are by far the most important of all. The Brigade has Sergeant Gordon'a motion before them, and if any one has anything to say on the subject we shall be glad to hear his candid opinion. If it is Carried it must be adhered to. Wo are regulating the internal machinery of the companies so that a man who does not come up to parade one night will hear of it the first thing next morning and will have to state his reasons—and they must be good ressons. We must endeavour to have as little play-work as possible and be as serious as We can.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.