OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 60, 12 March 1906, Page 1

OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

(Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, March 10. The heroes have returned. Never since the last contingent came back from South Africa lias there been such a scene at any disembarkation. But there was a difference. Whereas a contingent is a bulky thing which forces you to get out of its way, a football team is inferior in numbers, and gets itself lost in the enthusiastic crowd of its admirers. Thus out of four thousand people who fought to get near the heroes of their blood, not more than a hundred caught a glimpse of them. Nevertheless they roared just like a famished menagerie, and one was tempted to feel certain that Pandemonium had broken loose. The boys got away to their hotel with too much joy. Next day we could get at them more or less comfortably, and great was our joy, but not our surprise, to find the boys as modest as if they had never been five yards from th<i back door of the paternal residence. Particularly nice was it to hear Deans declare in the same breath that he had no doubt whatever about the success of his famous try, and that the best team nevertheless won. That is one of the best points that strikes the street.

Moreover, we find that they not only played in the States, but they have created a revolution _ in American football. It is a surprise to learn that the brutal game for which the Americans are infamous is not the product of ruffianism, but the deliberate system of the universities, whence all culture is supposed to come. It would be too much to say that the culture of the American is in- reality the ruffianism of the savage. The credit, however, of opening the American eye to a sad truth belongs to the football team of New Zealand. It is one of the greatest of the many great feats of the team.

Of course the Premier met them; and why not? Cheap witticisms have been rising from shallow throats about the " Right Honourable member for football. But a Premier must be alive to everything that happens among the people whom he has the honour to govern, or else he will not deserve the honour; and will not be likely to enjoy the same long. The biggest thing done by New Zealanders for many a uay is the great series of victories won by this team. We are ever moralising about the sane mind in the sane body. What sense, therefore, is there in refusing the logical conclusion that the first man in the country ought to consider it a duty to honour the men whom the nation is honouring for good and sufficient and honourable reason after the American continent has cheered them from New York to 'Frisco?

At Trentham there, has. been a picnic of ,another kind. The enterprising organisation of Colonel Collins has found the way out of the difficulty which threatened to kill the big championship meeting, and with it all the chances of founding a nation of marksmen for th© country's defence in the hour of need. The bulk of the men who take to shooting for patriotic reasons—not for pot-hunting—have no time to spare from their busy lives, not being members of the leisured class, for the service of their country. Anything over a week for a championship meeting was always fatal. Now the Colonel, who has succeeded the public-spirited Somerville,the father of rifle shooting in this country, went to the Defence Minister singing a variation of the eternal song about the money that makes the mare go. The Minister, who knows the Colonel, capitulated the moment he saw him coming; told him to take out his little bill and write. The Colonel smiled grimly, did as he was bid, and at once found himself in possession of the money needed to make tfte Trentham range fit for its accelerated business of championship. Behold three ranges, long, short and medium, all drained ana made comfortable, a pleasant camp, a force of assistants of all kinds, everything tip-top, up-to-date, and ship-shape Bristol fashion! The consequence is the meeting went off at fine speed, no one having to wait at all. The cause of national defence is therefore safe. This colonel has fought his battle of Waterloo.

Two things strike the reader of the reports as they struck the observers on the range. The first is that, the long ranges, 900 and 1000 yards, cracked up some of the best shots, and played old gooseberry with the worst, many of whom scored the possible in the shape of a big round " 0." The other is the phenomenal success of the rapid firing. As to the first, it is true that the rain came down in an unexpected southerly buster; but then, on service the southerly buster comes down just as it pleases him, and the'men must bs prepared. The nature of the compulsion may be gauged by the fact that the new rifles served out to the Japanese and the French armies—the two most up-to-date seryi.oes in the world—are sighted up to 2500 yards. So that points to the need for longrange practice. ' ' '

Now as to the rapid firing. At 300 yards the men had to fire seven shots ia 45 seconds, and at 500 they were required to fire the same number in 60. It is almost incredible that at the first range 34 men scored something; over 700 hits, and at 500 they plugged the targets a trifle over 1000 times. Why the better shooting at the longer range ? Probably because the n^en began at the first in the cold rain and sharp wind straight from their breakfast, whereas they had warmed to their work by the time they reached the longer range. The lesson, of course, is obvious: it is that as a rule marksmen take so long over their shot that they demoralise themselves thoroughly. Every one who has watched the game remembers how at times he has been tempted to feel that the marksman lying'so still and stiff has died of the excitement. Now, with compulsion, to make, up his^ mind seven times in 45 seconds and, 'again seven times in 60 seconds, there is no time for the uncertainties which spell want of plucky decision and mean demoralisation and exhaustion and vivid disappointment. The marksman jnst makes up his mind right of?, pnlls the trigger, and astonishes! himself even more than the. spectators. It will be well to ponsiaer whether it will not be well In future to restrict the time of the shooting to something reasonable. The pest of the marksman is the want of courage to make up his wind at the right moment. If h/n is shooting snipe there is no.t much chance of pondering whc/^j he is and whether he is in thought position. But snipeshooting is much of the nature of the service conditions, which alpne are worth considering. In war we doirt, but hitting at leisure,. The thing is to hit whenever we get th& chance, which presents itself usually for some fraction of a seoond, That rapid firing ought to be th© lever put into the hands of the Colonel who fought his battle of Waterloo by saving the cause of; national marksmanship. Having obtained the chance for \]\fs marksmen, he ought to be gi^-on the power of compelling tliem to take it.

The Laud Purchase Board h&s gone South ,and is to consider the buying ot some nrstrclass p^pjaerties which are as household words ju the mouth of the sou.ther.il people. On the Waitaki there js, the fine estate of Otekaike, chiefly pastoral, envied by the Oamaru folk almost from time immemorial, and Corriedale, the place in fine limestone country which has given a name to^ the new breed of sheep for the freezing. But the pick of ths basket is in the historic valley of tj\e Clufcha: Hi^lend, as gopdi as Greenfield, which it adjoin^a^d. CSytfe Vale, which for- years ha,s been easily first in the estim.a.^ioj>.' of the judges of good 'CQj&ntoyi thereabouts, and Clifton whjoh, adjoining the same ,rivals it in quality as one pea rivals another. These are good properties ,a«d their acquisition is justice to, Qfc&go and to many a long-desiwm* settler therein. The event of t^eir purchaso—surely bl\t question of time^-is another milesitone the record of progressive settlement. Pemahaka is alongside of Qlydevale, but the one is chalk and the other cheese. It shows the necessity for discrimination in the buying oi: estates for settlement, * « * * *. In Ohristchnrgh wq hear that therq

is a case of leprosy. The new Department of Health has been six years discovering the same, which was a tailor who has made clothing for some hundreds, perhaps thousands in the time. Perhaps this proves that (1) the Department of Hea^u is not so vigilant as it ought to be, and (2) that it does not matter much, as all the warnings of the Department about infection at least of so simple a disease as leprosy are wrong. It sounds absurd, but the thing is that if it is not absurd we are all in a queer street. It is pleasing to turn to the Exhibition and to know that the British Government has detached £10,000 to the help of that moribund institution. Brave Mother Country M