RIFLE CHAMPIONSHIP.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1029, 19 January 1911, Page 5

RIFLE CHAMPIONSHIP.

ARRANGEMENTS • FOR THE . MARCH MEETING. STRICTER SUPERVISION OVER COMPETITIONS. Arrangements in connection with the New Zealand Rifle Championship meeting, to bo held at Trentham nest March, are well forward. . Interviewed yesterday on tho subject by a representative of The Dominion, Colonel R. J., Collins, 1.5.0., Chief Executive Office of the Dominion Rifle Association, said that everything pointed to an entry, list of something like 600 competitors. The appearance of the camp this year will he quite different from last year, consequent upon 'the extension of the Sommerville Range— the centre series of mounds—back to 1000 yards. Immediately behind the new 1000 yards' mound which will be fenced off, will be situated the telegraph and telephone office, and nress tents. The final match for tho Rifle Championship is to be fired on the Sommerville Range this vear—in previous years tho 1000 yards' mound of the Seddon Range-was the contesting ground for tho "big guns"—and tho arrangements being mado for tho close proximity of the telegraph station, and press tents will bo of the greatest'' convenience. Behind these, and to the right, the lines of the main camp will bo set .out.

One of the lessons of the recent Piprott case in Australia, when a prominent rifleman was convicted of fraudulent practices on the riflo range; has'been a stricter supervision of the mounds, and of the scoring. This problem has given Colonel Collins considerable thought, with the result that a new system, Sesigned to make collusion _ between competitors practically impossible, has been "evolved. In any one squad, the order of firing will bo decided by the range officer, who will take the men's scoring cards, shuffle them, number the backs consecutively, and in that order the comjwtitors must fire. Strict injunctions ..will, be .sent out ■ in the : new rules' against any interference with the scoring boards-; there is to be no rubbing out. or altering of figures, and the boards are to lie so placed that the scores will be visible to the firer as well ns the range officers and scorers standing behind. ■ . LADIES' RIFLE. CLUB. A movement' is oil foot to establish a ladies' l'ifle club in Wellington. The promoters have approached the Defence Department 011 the subject of ammunition grants, and so forth, but as the reflations do not empower the Department to recogniso marksivomon, thero" is, apparently, not much help to be looked for in that quarter. An army nursing corps would seem to.offer moro valuablo scope for the energies of the fair Amazons.