78 OKEHAMPTON, 1895. 
advantages. Surely, with a little give and take, it should be possible to 
make the drill-book the universal authority, so that we might all feel, 
that called on to serve wherever it might be, we were safe in pinning 
our faith to that. Jf I may be allowed to say so, I should much like to 
see an officer representing India at the annual conference at Shoe- 
buryness. 
PART IL. 
REVIEW OF PROGRESS FROM 1888 TO 1895. 
To attempt a review of the progress at Okehampton in recent years 
ib was necessary to fix a definite period, and I have chosen the year 
1888 for my starting point for the following reasons :— 
After the practice that year, Colonel Walford delivered a lecture in 
this theatre on ‘‘ Service Practice”? which proved the commencement 
of this series. 
1888 was the first year in which the batteries at Okehampton were 
practically all armed with the 12-pr., as I hope this will be the last. 
And lastly, I had the advantage of personal recollection, having been 
myself on the Staff at Okehampton in 1888 and 1889. 
I shall endeavour to take you with me through the main features of 
each year’s practices, the time at my disposal makes it impossible to 
go into details. For convenience of comparisoz I shall make this 
review under the following heads :— 
State of training of batteries on, arrival. 
Elementary practice. 
Battery service practice. 
Brigade division practice. 
Competitive practice. 
Organization. 
Grate or TRAINING OF BATTERIES ON ARRIVAL. 
Let us begin with the training of the batteries before they 
arrived at the practice ground. ‘The instructions for practice for 
1888 are full of elaborate directions about the necessity of previous 
drill. Here are some of them. ‘“ Non-commissioned officers and 
gunners should also be trained to the ready and rapid handling 
of ammunition, boring and fixing of fuzes, etc. * * and firing 
—they should know perfectly the look of the ammunition and 
stores, where to find them and their use’””—and so forth in the same 
strain which alone tells its tale! But in spite of all this what says the 
Commandant in his report ? “‘The batteries generally are insufficiently 
trained.” 
In 1889 “ qualified layers” were instituted, and provision was made 
for a man other than a No.1 laying a gun, and in the “ Instructions ” 
Battery Commandersare told that they must make certain that their non- 
commissioned officers can be trusted to lay steadily according to order 
without attempting to make any corrections of their own. It seems 
