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13. The Committee note with regret that great difficulty is experienced in obtaining officers to fill vacancies in the commissioned ranks of the Mounted Rifles, and also that no practice by the Field Artillery Brigade took place during the year. Unless such practice is carried out regularly, the arm can at most be looked upon as effective from the parade point of view.

On the whole, however, the Military Commandant's Report shows that a steady improvement has taken place during the year in the Victorian military forces.

December 7, 1897.

(Signed)

M. NATHAN, Secretary,

Colonial Defence Committee.

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Australasia 18-12.97

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PRINTED AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE BY J. W. HARRISON.-8/12/97.

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Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. December 9, 1897.

SECRET.

No. 174 R.

QUEENSLAND.

C.O. No. 22561 and

No. 736. Secret.

QUEENSLAND.

Report by Commandant on Queensland Military Forces for

the

year 1896–97.

Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.

THE Colonial Office have referred to the Colonial Defence Committee a despatch from the Governor of Queensland, dated the 6th September, 1897, covering the Report of the Military Commandant, Queensland, on the forces in that Colony for the year 1896–97.

2. The Colonial Defence Committee have already discussed in their Memorandum No. 92 M, dated the 1st February, 1897, the 1896-97 establishment of the Queensland forces as reported in a despatch from the Governor, dated the 4th November, 1896. The establishment of officers and men of the Regulars and Militia combined was given in the Table accompanying that despatch as 2,704, whereas it appears in the Table on the top of p. 2 of the present Report as 2,161. Deducting, however, the strength of the Reserve which is apparently included in the former number, but not in the latter, the figures are 2,204 and 2,161. The difference is not very considerable, but it would have been convenient if it had been explained.

A more serious discrepancy relates to the number of officers available. In the Table inclosed in the above-mentioned despatch, the establishment of officers in the Regular and Militia forces combined for the year 1896-97 was 166, while for the Volunteers there were to be 50, and for the Cadets 20. The corresponding figures on the 30th June, 1897, taken from p. 2 of the present Report, are 176, 54, and 21, while the actual strength in officers, as taken from the same page, was 177 for the combined Regular and Militia forces, 37 for the Volunteers, and 21 for the Cadets. On p. 1, however, the strength of officers of the Regular and Militia forces on the same date is stated to be only 109, and, according to the Summary of Inspection, which forms Appendix (A) to the Report, there were at the date of the inspections 115 Regular and Militia, 35 Volunteer, and 8 Cadet officers. These discrepancies require explanation.

The grand total of the Queensland forces as shown on p. 1 of the present Report is 2,856, or if the members of rifle clubs and the police force are included 4,660. Adding, further, the authorized reserve of 500 gives a total of 5,160, against the 5,000 which the Colonial Defence Committee have stated in paragraph 2 of their Remarks, No. 163 R, dated the 28th June, 1897, to be, in their opinion, a sufficient force to provide for the reasonable security of the Colony itself and its contingent to the Australian Federal Force. The police cannot, in the opinion of the Committee, be considered as a very reliable part of the defensive establishment, as in times of excitement and trouble it seems unlikely that more than a small proportion could be taken from their regular duties. On p. 7 of the Report it is stated that the rifle clubs cannot "as at present constituted be said to add much to the military strength of the country.' Again the reserve for the infantry (p. 6) "has, so far, not proved a success. As matters now stand it would therefore seem that 2,856 officers and men

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