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and six 9-pr. R.M.L. guns. A battery of six 12-pr. B.L.
A battery of six 12-pr. B.L. guns with waggons and harness complete has been ordered from England, and the Commandant, in his Report for 1894, recommends that a second battery should be ordered shortly. The Committee have no information as to whether this recommenda- tion has been acted upon.
The Federal Defence Scheme of October 1894 laid down that New South Wales should furnish two batteries of six guns to the Federal Field Force, and the latest revision of the New South Wales Defence Scheme proposed that four field guns should form part of the Sydney Reserve.
The Colonial Defence Committee emphatically concur in the Commandant's recommendation in his 1893 Report that one pattern of field gun should be adopted for the whole of the Australian Colonies. They propose to deal shortly, in a separate Memorandum, with the general question of colonial field artillery equipment.
6. The Committee concur in the recommendation of the Commandant that the 6-pr. Q.F. guns.recommended for provision by the Local Joint Naval and Military Committee should be purchased.
They have reason to believe that it may be possible to obtain one or two Q.F. guns from the Colony of Victoria, and in this connection they would suggest that the Colonies of Australia should keep themselves carefully informed of any surplus stores that may be available in other parts of the continent.
7. The Commandant strongly urges the rearmament of the infantry of New South Wales and of the whole of the Australian Colonies with a modern small-bore rifle.
A similar recommendation is understood to have been made by the conference of Commandants, which assembled at Sydney at the end of January 1896, whose proceedings are to be dealt with at a meeting of the Australian Premiers next month.
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The Colonial Defence Committee look upon it as most desirable that all troops in Australia should be exclusively armed with rifles and carbines. taking the same 303-inch ammunition as is used in the Imperial service. They consider that it may be left to the Colonies to determine whether the state of their finances, and the amount of training which they are enabled to give their troops, justify the adoption of the Lee-Enfield magazine rifle and carbine, or whether the Martini-Enfield single loader, which can be converted from Martini-Henry arms at comparatively small cost, sufficiently meets the requirements of their troops. They would point out that even the most intelligent troops require constant training in fire discipline to euable them to derive full advantage from the use of a magazine rifle.
8. The Committee concur in the recommendation of the Commandant that the saddlery provided for the mounted troops of New South Wales should be of the pattern best suited to insure their horses being kept efficient under the strain of continuous field service.
9. The Commandant, in his Reports for 1893 and 1894, recommended that a new Military Act to govern the constitution of the Military Forces of New South Wales should be passed to replace the existing Volunteer Acts of 1867 and 1878, which are inapplicable to the partially-paid force as it now exists. In the 1894 Report he advises that this Act should be on the basis of the draft prepared by the Sydney Military Conference of October 1894, which was recommended for adoption by all the Colonies of Australia and by Tasmania.
The Colonial Defence Committee concur generally in these recommenda- tions. They attach the greatest importance to the assimilation of the condi- tions of service of the troops in the different Colonies of Australia, and they consider that, as far as the local circumstances permit, the conditions of service should also be similar to those in the corresponding forces of the Imperial army.
10. In his Report for 1894 the Commandant deals with the important question of creating a reserve to enable peace establishments to be promptly brought up to war footing with trained men, and proposes to utilize the existing Rifle Clubs as a nucleus for such a reserve.
Since the date of this Report it is understood that action has been taken in this direction, and that a considerable reserve has already been formed.
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