VOLUNTEER NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 157, 5 July 1899, Page 3

VOLUNTEER NOTES.

(By Rifleman.)

Our volunteers will be glad to hear that the defence authorities have under consideration certain suggestions by the Range Committee with regard to the reopening of the Mt. Eden rifle range. 1 have all along contended that the range is not really dangerous if proper precautions are adopted and efficient supervision exercised; and it appears that the Range Committee take the same view of the matter. Their suggestions are practical and to the point, and if the authorities are in the least degree alive to the importance of cultivating good shooting among our citizen-soldiery they will fall in with the proposals placed before them. The Committee recommend that the Government provide a Morris-tube range at the Drill Hall, and the necessary tubes and the ammunition. Here the recruits could be put through a systematic course of musketry instruction under experienced marksmen, and no man would be allowed on the rifle range at Mt. Eden until he had passed through the Mor-ris-tube course and earned a certificate of proficiency. In this way the shooting at the rifle range would be confined to men who have learned the elements of musketry and have become fairly proficient in the use of the rifle. If this scheme is carried into practice I am confident there will be no more well-grounded complaints about the dangerous state of the range. Such a course of instruction should have been instituted long since; but it is never too late to mend, and I sincerely hope that the Government will make amends for past indifference by giving to our volunteers as soon as possible the facilities for .shooting1 practice which they ask for and have a rig-ht to expect.

The decadence of shooting in the Auckland district is only too apparent when one looks back to the "good old days" of the eighties, when this city used to produce some of the finest marksmen in the colony. I was looking over the records of the N.Z. Bifle Association's meetings the other day and a perusal of the booklet revealed many interesting and significant facts. The Northerners had good reason to be proud of their shooting at one time, but there has been a sad falling off of .recent years. The annual contest for the Champion Carbine Belt,was instituted io 1872, and.thenceforward until 1887 it was won year after year exclusively by Northern marksmen, Auckland securing .the trophy thrice and Thames no less than five times in succession. Again, in 1885 we had Corporal Parslow, of the "A" Battery, win the rifle championship of the colony, and Lt. Lucas, of the Thames, the carbine championship—two volunteers from the Auckland district carrying off the highest

honours in competition against the whole of the colony.' Similarly in 18S7 two more Aucklanders finished first and second in the rifle championship of the colony, Major White (then captaiu of the Gordon Rifles) winning the coveted belt, and Captain Little, of the old Hobson Rifles, finishing 2 points behind. At one meeting in the "eighties" three Auckland companies —Gordon Rifles, an honorary corps, Victoria Rifles, and Thames Rangers —filled the first, second and third places in the order named in the Teams Challege Match, a contest open to the colony. At the same the "A" Battery, a crack shooting corps in its day, carried off the Teams Challenge Match for carbines, and, curiously enough, beat the score of the champion rifle team, although the carbine^ was supposed to be inferior to the' larger weapon. Many other names could be cited, did space permit. One has only to note the results of recent years and compare them with these records of the past to see what a falling off there has been of late in the shooting of the Auckland volunteers. How many Auckland companies were among the first twenty in the volleyfiring returns at the end of the past year? Only one — the Coromandel Rifles—and it was twentieth! Further comment is surely needless.

The Thames volunteers, with commendable energy, are organising a military tournament and sports meeting for November 9th. The events are open to members of volunteer corps and fire brigades only, and the following judges have been elected, subject to their consent:— Lt.-Colonel Banks, Major Murray, Capt. Mackenzie, R.A., Capt. Grant, SergeanWVlajor Carpenter, and for the fire brigade events, Captain Field. This is a good opportunity for Auckland companies to enter teams for competition. They will have plenty of time to work up their drill before the 9th, and one would like to see Auckland worthily represented when the tournament comes on.

A week or two ago I commented on the fact that the marksmen's badges won at the end of last year had not yet been received. Since then some of the badges have come to hand, but a number of men who qualified as marksmen have not yet received their badges. It is hardly fair to let one company get them and another company go without, nor is, the delay in this matter calculated to make these badges a particular incentive towards good shooting.

Now that Major White's commission has been gazetted the captaiiipy of the Victoria Rifles becomes vacant. The No. 1 Natives are still minus a captain, and the vacant lieutenancy in the Auckland Navals has yet to be filled.

Serg-eant-Major W. Wallace has been unanimously elected to a lieutenancy in the Mounted Rifles at Cambridge, vice Mr T. W. Weatherill. Captain Hunt has resigned the command of the corps, as he is leaving the district. He will be entertained at a smokeconcert at Cambridge this evening, when a souvenir will be presented to him by the members of the company. The vacant post of SergeantMajor in the corps has been filled, Sergt. Garland being appointed to the position. Several other appointments have been made, and the list of noncoms, is now as follows:—Sergt-Major Garland, Quarter-Master Sergt. Craig, Farrier-Sergt. Herbert Ferguson, Sergts. G. Watt, Hugh Ferguson, G. Gane and McDonald, Corpls. Matson, E. Smith, T. Maunder, C. Brunskill, Scott and Gilbert Watt, Bugler C. Boyce, jun.

The Devonport Coastguard Artillery Volunteer' Corps will hold a paid day> light parade on Saturday next at 2.30 p.m. The corps will assemble at Victoria Wharf, Devonport, and march to the forts.

Captain Potts, of the Thames Navals, has recently received his commission. He was in charge of the corps for years as lieutenant-commander, and when it was converted into a rifle corps he remained in command as : acting-captain, and has now qualified for a commission.

Months ago the condition of the

officers' room at the Drill Hall was commented upon in these columns. There is no improvement to record; nothing has been done to relieve the bareness of the place. On the contrary, the solitary portrait in the room, that of the late Major Withers, looks if possible more dilapidated than ever, with a frame that is literally falling to pieces. Apparently, it is a case of everybody's business being nobody's. But the portrait should be re-framed, and it would be a good idea to get the photographs of the other officers who have commanded this district framed and hung round the room.

i To his many duties Sergeant-Major Carpenter has apparently added that of whistling master. It was amusing to see him coaxing three companies last evening to whistle "Two Lovely Black Eyes" in unison as an accompaniment to their physical drill. The idea is of course, to get the men to keep together when doing the exercises without numbers.

The "difference between East and West" is curiously illustrated in the following little story. When the Citiamkaunis, taken prisoners in Capt. Roos-Keppel's raid—a raid which has terrified all border ruffians—were taken down the Kurrum Valley to India, the Major of the escort gave the oldest of the prisoners, a benignantlooking elder, with a white beard, a fill of tobacco out of his pouch, and the old man lit his pipe. "Would you treat you prisoners like this? would you give them tobacco?" the Major asked. The Chamkauni wasted no time in words; he took a long draw at his pipe, smiled, and drew his finger across his throat.

The Cambridge Company of the Waikato Mounted Rifles completed a week's training on Saturday afternoon with independent firing drill. The weather was wretched, and it was found impossible to put more than one squad of 14 men through the work. However the results in their case -were above the average of the shooting this year in Waikato, the points made being 20.92, out of a possible 30. This is pronounced by Captain Coleman to be very good, and should encourage the men to practise. According to this month's "Army List," we have in the Cape Colony two companies of garrison artillery, one of fortress engineers, two battalions and two half-battalions <)f infantry; while in Natal, on the other flank of the Transvaal, we have two regiments of cavalry, three field batteries, and a mountain battery of artillery and two and a half battalions of infantry, or in all, two infantry brigades, with a lieutenant-general and a brigadiergeneral, and full staffs of exceptionally picked Staff College officers. And besides these there is the large force of volunteers in the Cape Colony, who would be expected to hold their own till reinforcements went out.

The Wellington Infantry Battalion it seems have decided to keep their regimental colours in "the Museum, where the public can have a chance of seeing them. This seems a commonsense idea, and one which might with advantage be followed in Auckland. I have expressed the general opinion on this matter before, and need not repeat what was then written. The Canterbury Mounted Battalion has just been gazetted. Major Slater, V.D., who has been appointed first

Xew 7 Battalipn, has seen more ;BeX.f Dd + ? OlUnteer service ttaa TandT !any °ther °fficer iQ New ZeaNeaJS it aV Uthusiastic !tho "lin^T f ousand recruits (says the Broad Arrow") w ho offerer! ! pnSniAn? appear'have b<** i placed m all the barracks of tha ; garrison of Paris, exposiS £ Se eyes of soldiers the ranges produced by alcohol on the human fystem Ther are exhibited in dormitories, lavatories and dmingrooms, and show the mterna organs of a person adlicted to drink and those of healthy sober J.en. The diagrams are accSpSS by a notice enumerating the 'effect* of alcoholpathologicallyVd morally All this is owing to the increasing consumption of alcohol in Prance Since the institution of the Victoria Cross forty-one years ago, no fewer than 429 officers and men 'of the Army and Navy have had this decoratioj JZ V f alr r best™ed upon them. Half of the crosses awarded have been given in recognition of acts of distinguished gallantry performed in | India. For the Mutiny alone there were 182 awards, but that campaign lent itself, of course, to acts of personal gallantry. The total number of cases favourably considered in connection with the Crimean campaimi j reached 111, and the last Indian fron- ; tier campaign added ten to the record of recipients. For the recent operations in the Soudan four awards were made—Captain Smyth, 2nd Dragoon Guards, and Captain Kenna, Light Brigade.

The "Times" Paris correspondent draws attention to an extraordinary j article in the "Revue dcs Deux Monides." "To be able," says the writer, j "to hurl upon England an army of j 160,000 to 170,000 men with 500- quick". I firing guns and the necessary ammujnition and provisions 1500 steam pin{naees would have to be constructed, j which would cost 150,000,000f, an im- ; portant sum, no doubt, but one which, i considering that it would come out of | the 800,000,0001 voted by Parliament j for the increase of the fleet, would be perhaps more usefully spent in thus procuring for us so powerful a means of attack, than if it were devoted to the construction of ironclads. Moreover, there is all the less reason for hesitation, as this, flotilla, so far from being unproductive in time of peace> would render trade and commerce the greatest services." The probability of getting these vessels across the Channel and upon the English coast presents no difficulty to the writer. As for the English coast defences, he thinks them almost a negligible quantity. The troops would be landed almost simultaneously, like a party of Cook's tourists out for a holiday—in fact, Napoleon had to face a far more difficult problem at Wagram, Where he had to cross the Danube by four bridges in front of the whole Austrian army—from Calais or Dunkirk. ■ The operation would be merely a matter of three or four hours, and the invader could descend on Brighton m seven hours. Moreover, favourable points for landing are far more numerous than is supposed. Twelve divisions of 14,500 men each could thus land in England and three in Ireland without disturbing in .any way the mobilisation of the 20 army corps, and this Irish, could be armed with old Gras rifles, several hundreds of thousands of which are rusting in French arse* nals. .

Colonial blankets at mill prices, English blankets 8/11 td 21/ per pair. Greatly reduced.—D.S.C.—(Ad.)