TERRITORIALS.

Evening Star, Issue 15136, 18 March 1913, Page 3

TERRITORIALS.

[By Rkirmishwb.] Items of interest concerning Corps (Town ! and Country), Shooting, and Verri- ' torial notes generally will be accepted. ’ Copy, addressed to ''Skirmisher,” should be in hand not later than Monday morning. The annual prize-firing of the Otago Rifle Association takes place this week. The Dunedin and Kiwi Defence Rifle Clubs will each put in two teams for the Teams Match at Pelichet Bay this week. • Sixteen targets will be in nee at the same time during the association's meeting at Easter. The entries received for the Otago Rifle Association’s prize meeting will double the total received by the Christchurch Association. An invitation to be present at a concert and dance promoted by the members of the H Company (Mornington Rifles), assisted by the band of the Fourth Regiment, on March 28 is acknowledged with thanks. Amendments to the ‘Signalling Manual, 1911,’ have been approved, and copies will shortly be issued to all concerned. Although entries for the Rifle Association meeting closed on Friday last, late entries will be received by the secretary up to the time of shooting. Mr W. E. F. Do Delle-Flow>er and Colorsergeant J .Braithwaite are gazetted second lieutenants on probation to the 10th (North Otago) Regiment; also Mr R. L. Pauli and Mr J. G. Johnston as second lieutenants on probation to the 14th (South Otago) Regiment. Corporal Black’s tent first, Corporal Shepherd’s tent second, and Color-sergeant Meldrum’s tent third were the. successful prize-winners in the resent “best tent” competition at the Engineers’ camp at Sutton. Prizes were donated by the officers and the Rev. C. J. Bush King. Diyine service was attending by the various companies of visiting Cadets in Dunedin on Sunday. A large number attended St. Paul’s Cathedral, and many others were present at the South Dunedin Presbyterian Church. In the afternoon many attended the Young Men’s Christian Association Institute. Entries received for the Otago Rifle Association’s prize firing, which will commence on Friday next, are very satisfactory, and combine both quantity and quality. The best shots in the district have entered, and, given fine weather, the meeting is bound to be an unqualified success. Competitors will find the range accommodation all right, and the targets which are - being newly papered) will be in first-class order. The interprovincial match will resolve itself into a triagular test between Southland, Dunedin, and North Otago, with 20 men a side. This match will take place on Easter Monday morning, and the teams will be selected from the competitors at the meeting. Great interest is being taken in the teams match (five men a side, w-ho must all be members of the same corps or club), which will be fired in conjunction with the four Bisley matches. Good entries have been, received from the Territorials, and with the practice these men have had during the recent musketry course I quite expect to see a good many of them well up in the prize list of the Service i matches. A “Last Try” Match, open to competitors who have not won more than 7s 6d at the meeting, will be fired on Saturday afternoon, and special prizes in all the other matches are offered to Territorials and Senior Cadets who are tyros. Word has been received that the plans for the new drill hall in Dunedin have been approved. Specifications are now being prepared, and very shortly we will see an advertisement calling for tenders. This should he good news to all concerned. . Certain hooks laid down in General Regulations, paragraphs 649 and 650, will be in camp, and officers and noncommissioned officers should be sure to become possessed of them at once. Indents for books required :,t.j to be submitted to district headquarters. A large number of Waitaki High School Cadets were billeted in the Garrison Hall from Friday till Monday morning. The officers’ dub room was used as quarters by the officers. ~ - The Auckland Rifle Association will hold, a tug prize meetinng on the first three days of next year. Already the provisional programme is published, and any of our rifle shots who contemplate a visit to the northern City would do well to procure a copy. Prize money mot including a number of, valuable troi phies) to the value of £450 is offered, and as the entrance fee is very low a record number of entries is bound to be received. Coming so close on the Dominion Championship Meeting is bound to have an effect on the Trentham gathering, and the Dominion Executive would do well to consider the advisability of running in conjunction with the. Auckland Association. Six matches will be fired, each carrying prize money valued at £sl. and the King’s Match or Championship Aggregate, valued at £lO5. Special inducements are offered to tyros, and an innovation in rifle matches is a Veterans’ Match, open to anv one with 20 years service or over 50 years of age. Competitors at the meeting are barred, and trophies will be presented to jthe winners. Tire Overseas Club flag was flown for the first time in Dunedin at the Cadets' tournament on' Saturday. The Union Jack, with the club's badge in the centre, is something new, and many of those present on the ground were somewhat puzzled at first sight with the bunting. By the removal to Christchurch of Lieutenant J. L. Saunders, who left Dunedin to take charge of the Dental ward of the Christchurch Hospital, the Ist Battalion of the 4th Regiment, Otago Rifles, lias lost a most valuable officer. Mr Saunders has keen attached to B Company, formerly the Dunedin Highland Rifles, since their redeeignation on the commencement of the new scheme, and was, in fact, in sole charge of the company for nearly a year. It is greatly owing to his splendid grip of the work and the Time devoted by him to the training of his men that the company have_reached their present high standard of efficiency. While we arc very sorry to hear of the Ist Battalion’s loss, we wish Mr Saunders every success in this his start in life.

An instructional class for those members of the 4th Regiment who have an idea of going np for non-commissioned officers is conducted every Fndav evening by Captain R. Is*. Fraser, N.Z.’S.C. Saturday's Cadet military tournament, which is the first since the inauguration of the Defence scheme, was a pronounced success from a military point of view. Competitors from Camara, Bluff, Invercargill, and Milton arrived in hundreds on Friday, and spent most of their time in practising for the various events, the Waitaki Boys’ High School, in particular, being exceptionally keen. The climatic conditions were most unfavorable, and continued so right throughout the tournament. The first competitive event started sharp at 1.20 p.m., the advertised time, and the othar events followed with mechanical precision, which speaks well for the manner in which the executive carried out their duties. The display of work was undoubtedly the best ever seen in Dunedin, and the officers and instructors are to be congratulated on the result. In no case was any team a disgrace, and while some were much better” than others, the worst were fit to hold their oven against many companies of the old days. The display of physical exercises hy the massed Dunedin Senior Cadets was a sight which will not readily he forgotten. Close on 1,000 Cadets took part, and, taking their orders from Staff Ser-geant-major Donaldson, went through the various exercises like one man. The march past (in column of fours) by all competitors before Colonel Bauchop, C.M.G., officer commanding the district, was one of the features of the afternoon. The \Vaitaki High School boys were prominent in every event, and won a good many trophies, besides a special prize for the team gaining most points in certain events. Perhaps the most exciting and l keenly-contested event of the day was the tng-of-war. iVenty-three companies entered teams, each team consisting of eight Cadets, they ■‘ing the pick of the various companies. ‘ supervisors and judges worked, hard

to gat th® numerous, pulls off promptly, but a little delay was caused through the enthusiasm, of the spectators allowing them to trespass on the space allotted for the pulls. The display events by the B Battery, N.Z.F.A., Otago Hussars, and No. 2 Company, N.Z.E., met with repeated applause from the spectators. The 4th Regiment Band, resplendent in their new uniforms, faced the rain all day, and by their bright music helped many to forget the misery of wet feet. Owing to the success of this tournament, it has been suggested that the executive should consider the advisability of devoting a whole day to the next tournament, owing to the large numter of entries that will bo forthcoming from various parts. At the conclusion of the tournament the prize-win-ners were presented with their trophies by Mrs Baucnop, and advantage was taken of the occasion to present prizes won by Dunedin Cadets at the Otago Hussars’ sports, which were held some weeks back. The executive of the tournament worked hard, and special words of thanks are duo to Lieutenant F. Brown as secretary and Lieutenant F. Statham as treasurer, who put in an immense amount of time and hard work to make the tournament a succesa.

Up to - last night the secretary of the Otago Rifle Association had received 104 entries for the prize meeting at Easter. Competitors from Waitaki to the Bluff have entered, and include well-known names in Major Searle, Captain Doraegan, Captain Main, Lieutenant Shanks, Rifleman Ongley, Rifleman Gillan, Color-ser-geant Moss, and Lieutenant MTntosh

Accommodation is being arranged for 10S officers and 2,615 non-commissioned officers and men for the annual camp of the Otago Infantry Brigade, -which commences at Sutton on April 11. No 2 Company, N.Z.G.A, (Port Chalmers), have been putting in quite a busy time during the last four weeks, parading on Monday and Wednesday evenings and on three Saturday afternoons. Advantage of the daylight has been taken to-examine non-commissioned officers and men in sightsetting and gun-laying. The company will parade on Thursday afternoon next for the purpose of proceeding to Taiaroa Head for their annual seven days’ camp of instruction. ' , That B Company, Ist Battalion, 4th (Otago) Regiment, is in a decidedly healthy condition was fully proved on ‘Tuesday evening last, when‘over 20 men who had long since completed the number of drills required of them by law attended in order to give those who had in several cases, through no fault of their own, been unable to attend all parades what assistance they could, for it is well known that a well-attended drill goes with a better swing than one at which the attendance is sparse. I find, on inquiry, that almost all the men on the roll have'completed the drills, parades, and musketry course for the year, and have only now to.put in, their seven days’ camp to complete the personal service required of them before the 51st of May next, and the fact that so many of them continue to attend the weekly drills in order to keep the company’s end up speaks volumes for the good tone existing in the company. This is certainly the true soldier spirit of assisting one another, and show’s that while there may be a few who do not do more than they have to do, the big majority are quite prepared to do all in their power to hack np_ the officers and non-commissioned officers in. keeping the Highland Rifles in the same efficient state as it was in the old "days.