RIFLE SHOOTING

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 17, 21 January 1936, Page 16

RIFLE SHOOTING

OLD NEW ZEALAND SPORT

MANY FINE SHOTS

Hugby football and cricket are generally regarded as being very old sports in New Zealand, but from a national point. of view they are considerably younger than rifle shooting, which, inasmuch as the first New Zealand championship meeting was held in 1861, can be regarded as the oldest organised sport in the Dominion. For those who have not been initiated into its mysteries it probably seems a most prosaic pastime, a feeling no doubt engendered by the fact that it receives comparatively little publicity. But that this cannot be so is evident from the fact that it numbers thousands among its devotees. There are dozens of rifle clubs scattered up and down New Zealand, several of which have produced some of the finest shots in the world. Naturally our appearances in international competition have not been many, but we have had one English Bisley champion, Sergeant L. Loveday, who was successful in 1919, while on other occasions several of our representatives have been in ths final fifty. New Zealand, too, has won the Kolipore Cup competition, symbolic of British Empire team-shooting supremacy. Our colleges have also been successful in the Empire aggregate for secondary school competition. KEENNESS OF VISION. New Zealanders have a natural keenness of sight. Their perception of distance is probably not excelled among the peoples of those nations which have adopted rifle shooting as a national sport. This is a condition for which the mode of living of many of the Dominion's best shots has no doubt been largely responsible. It is well known that the vision of people living in the country is, as a rule, so far as discerning objects at a distance is concerned, much superior to that of the town dweller. It is significant that since 1900, when country rifle shooting clubs commenced to flourish in New Zealand, only on ten occasions has a town of any consequence produced the winner of a national championship. Naturally there have been brilliant exceptions, for example, A. Ballinger, of the Petone Rifle Club, Captain Wales, of Otago, H. V. Croxton and R. F. Nichol, of the Karori and Petone Clubs, Wellington, respectively, and Captain H. Simmonds, Wanganui. The Wellington suburban clubs are well organised and the enthusiasm of their members is unrivalled. This, no doubt, largely accounts for the success which the Karori and, in particular, the Petone Rifle Clubs have enjoyed at national meetings. FURTHER SUPPORT. Further support for the theory that dwelling in the country is an asset so far as rifle shooting is concerned is lent by the fact that in both Australia and Canada the standard of the sport is particularly high. Th 3 rural life led by so many of the leading shots of the two countries is directly responsible for much of their prowess. This is not the whole story, of course, since coaching and training of the eyes are other vital factors, but nevertheless natural keenness of vision is more j than half the battle.

New Zealand has produced many interesting personalities, and of these Colonel E. R. Smith is one. of the most notable. He started shooting as.long ago as 1868,

when he was a member of the Otago Boys' High School Cadets. That, of course, was long before the day of modern rifles. The Terry carbine, a breech-loader, was the weapon of the day. In 1873 he won the cadet championship belt for New Zealand, and in 1894, as a member of the Dunedin City Guards, he was successful in a wider spere by winning the rifle belt. Though it is a far cry from that year to the present day, he was a competitor at the national meeting at Trentham in 1934, and it is just possible that he may put in an appearance at this year's meeting early in March.

As a sport rifle shooting knows no jealousy, no public applause, and therefore has no idols, and gives as much pleasure to the youth as it does to the grandfather.