utenant and some of the older men, who had
induced the younger soldiers to join them in the action they had taken,
as they afterwards informed me, so as to bring matters to a head. The
incident was inquired into and the evidence fully convicted the two
ringleaders. They were tried by court-martial, sent to prison and
dismissed from the force. So ended the first and last case of
insubordination that took place during the many years that I commanded
the Permanent Artillery. However, the event had been of use to me, as it
had reminded me of General Gordon's golden rules.

The action taken by Sir Frederick Sargood in importing the Imperial
officers to Victoria was resulting in a very considerable improvement in
the military forces of that colony. They were following on the same lines
as South Australia as regarded their constitution; a very much higher
standard of instruction, a better supervision of detail, and competent
inspection contributed to this much-desired result.

Let us see what was going on in New South Wales. The Officer Commanding
the Forces was Major-General Richardson, who had been in the regular
forces, had retired, and had been appointed Commandant some years
previously. The organization of the military forces of "the Mother
Colony" was being brought into line with that of Victoria and South
Australia. The other three colonies, Queensland, Western Australia and
Tasmania, had been gradually following the lead given by the others,
though, as in New South Wales, they had not as yet imported Imperial
officers to take command.

Towards the close of 1884 the course of our campaign in Egypt was running
anything but smoothly; in fact, the military situation was very serious
and critical. Throughout the Empire a strong feeling of apprehension was
rife, but it was left to New South Wales, the Mother State, to be the
first of England's children to make an offer of material help. Who first
conceived the idea is not recorded, but the credit of crystallizing and
giving it effect belongs to the late the Hon. John B. Dalley. This was
not actually the first occasion on which Australians had offered to fight
alongside English regular troops, for, at the time of the Maori War in
New Zealand, volunteers from New South Wales and Victoria had raised
units and joined in the fighting. But such action on their part had been
looked upon as only natural. New Zealand was their next-door neighbour,
really a sister colony, and it was