Uniform.
The Council next launched into the important subject of uniform, a subject of which the details occupied their attention at several successive meetings, and in regard to which some of the members displayed great energy. Apparently unmindful of the terrors of a military tailor’s bill, each attended the meeting in the pattern of uniform that he individually recommended. Mr. Tom Taylor was one of these energetic members, and to him it appears that the regiment was indebted for the pattern of most of the uniform ultimately selected; for we find that with regard to the full dress of both privates and officers, the decision of the Council was that “the uniform worn by Mr. Tom Taylor be adopted.”
The uniform as then fixed was similar in all main points to that so recently discarded. It was, perhaps, a little more sombre in appearance, for the royal blue facings, silver lace, and Prince of Wales’ feathers were added at a later date (1863). The cost, including chako, was £4 4s.
Affairs were not to remain for long in the semi-amalgamated corps in a state of perfect harmony. A disagreement, amounting to an open breach, even occurred on this early question of uniform; for at the third meeting of the Council, held on the 31st January, a letter from the Customs Corps was read, stating that “they declined to adopt the ornaments on the belts as decided upon by the Council, and that they would therefore have no participation in the arrangements of the Civil Service Regiment.”