Tae present relations between the Municipal Council and the Volunteers are not as satisfactory as they might be. All are agreed that we ought to have a Volunteer force. All admit that [the present force, though doubtless capable of improvement, contains the elements of strength, and would be of grout service incase of local disturbances, The Ratepayers have not been averse to supplying the funds required for the equipment of our little army, and the Council have always been ready to sanction the expenditare of the sum placed at their disposal in the manner required by the Volunteers themselves. Everything therefore seems favourable, and yet, we repeat, the result is not altogether what could be wished.
Tt is the old case of one body providing fands and another body spend. ing them. It is not that those who have to spend the money in this case are careless or extravagant, but that their connection with the Corps almost obliges them to ask for tunds in all cases where there is any show of reason in the matter, and in expending those fands the Volunteers and even the public themselves object to any niggardliness; or rather what is looked upon as commendable economy in the expenditure of private funds is called reprehensible mennness in the expenditure of public money. If any one were to.place himself in the Position of Chairtian of the Council or Private' of Volunteers, of officer of a Company or Commandant of the Corps, be would find that the calls for the ture of - public money were irresistible or nearly so, and he would find it impossible to keep that control over the accounts which is universally admitted to be necessary and which is generally practised in private affairs, It is absolutely certain that the fault, if it exists, cannot be laid to the charge of any of the gentlemen interested, and consequently must be the result of the system, Thefirst question that occurs to any one is, what are the points in which our local system resembles and what are those in which it differs from the system in England? It resembles it to the extent that in both places it is admitted that the cost of arms, &c., and the various necessary expenses of the military training of Volunteers should be borne by the public, but it differs from it to this extent that the payment in England is by results and is to the extent ofa definite sum per head. Starting from this as a basis, without going so far as to say that the English system should be strictly copied, we may notice a few points where improvement over the present system is possible.
In the first place we think the Council ought, as hitherto, to supply guns and rifles and provide the services of a Sorgennt-Major and Armourer Sergeant, with, of course, the necessary assistants. They should provide and keep in order the rifle range, they should maintain " proper magazine and keep a proper supply of ammunition, and they should serve out free as much a8 is required for the regular: practice of the Artillery and for class firing for other branches of the service, and it is probably as well that they should pay directly for the ponies for the Artillery, though it is possibly open to question whether an allowance to the Corps for this purpose might not work better. This, however, is of little moment. Hither directly or indirectly they should bear this expense, but we think we have enumerated all or almost all the expenses which should be a direct charge on the Council. All other expenses for which the Council intend that public money shall be used, should be provided for out of an allowance por head for ench efficient Volunteer puld to the Company to which he belongs.
What exactly should constitute an efficient Volunteer is a matter we need not discuss at present. For recruits there should be a certain number of preliminary drills before they are allowed to take their places in the rauks of their Company, and for all members there should be a certain amount of drill, on foot or mounted, as the case may be, and with the infantry acertain amount of rifle practice; but the demand upon the time of the Volunteer should not be such as to entail avy unnecessary inconvenience. It is quite possible to teach a man all that it is necessary for him to know, and still more simple to keep an old Volunteer up to the mark, without calling upon him to attend more drills than he might look upon us an amusement. Of course in addition to the captain's certificate that the man had attended the proper number of drills there would have to be the Command. aut's that he appeared to be efficient ab general parades.
For every reomit joining and making himself efficient a certain allowance might be paid to his Company, and for every old Volunteer a somewhat smaller sum, Out of the fand thus formed each Company would provide its own uniforms, and would buy ammunition for Company competitions, and for all other competitions where it was not thought that competitors should buy their own privately. All expenses connected with a march-out and all the other expenses of the Company should also be defrayed out of this fund.
The Council in this way would never have to be consulted about expenditure counested with matters other than arms, &. The funds being administered by the committee of each Company, that committee would probably exercise a wholesome control over expenditure, and what is much more to the point, would not be expected by any one to expend money in the same open-handed manner as at present, The money being paid by the Council to a fund belonging to the Company or troop and not to the individual, esprit de corps would do much to make a man do his best, and a little generous rivalry between the various Companies as to which would have the largest proportion of efficients would probably help matters wonderfully, Woe do not feel inclined to name any particular sum for the grant, but just as we think it would be a fatal mistake to make the requirements of an eficieut too onerous, so we think it would be unadvisable to grant a sum insufficient for the calls upon it. The points on which we insist are that the regaler standing expenses connected with arms, ete., should be paid by the Council, but that all payments where the expenditure is to the slightest extent in the hands of the Volunteers should be made out of a Company fund formed by o grant from the Council based upon the number of efficient members, supplemented if. necessary by snbscriptions from the members themselves.
While we mention subscriptions, we would remark on one. point, Wo believe that in some Corps at Home when a member does not earn the Government grant, he has to pay it himself. To such a proposal here, we would express our objection. Where a man joins, and has to leave Shanghai before he has made himeelf efficient for the year, some allowance might be made by the Council if he had done his best during the time he belonged to the Corps; or perhaps a better plan would be to allow so much per Company. to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.