VOLUNTEER PRIZE FIRING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VI, Issue 1630, 11 February 1869, Page 3

VOLUNTEER PRIZE FIRING.

THE NlsW REGULATIONS. We noticed in our issue of the 28th ult. the publication in the New Zealand Gazette of the 13th of that month the New Government Regulations for prize firing for tho Volunteers of the North Island. A copy of these regulations has been forwarded by Captain and Adjutant Tisdale to the officers in commnnd of tho several companies forming tho Right Wing of the Auckland Volunteer Force, namely, the Naval Artillery, and Nos. 1, 2, and 3 Companies of the Rifle Volunteers, with the intimation that the firing for that wing will take place on the 15 th proximo, and that the names of intending competitors must be sent in on or before the 10th proximo. The Adjutant also calls the attention of volunteers to the fact that under the new rules every competitor making a score of more than 25 will recoive a money prize. In our issue of the 29th ult. we reprinted the whole of the new rules, and it is to rule 6 that the attention of the force is especially called.

G- Tho remainder of the money apportioned to the district will be divided, according to their score, amongst nil those (winners of tho prize included) who make a greater number of murks than 25 at the competitive firing. No competitor, however, is to receive on thU account a greater dum than £5 ; but should there be a surplus undistributed in any district, it will be avoilttblo to complete deficiencies, if any, in other places. We should imagine that this will be a sufficient inducement to cause an unusual number of entries for the on-coming firing, and it is with pleasure that we observe the General Government taking steps to forward tho volunteer cause in this colony. We think it is a mistake to include the Constabulary in the list of forces to compete, since it seems hardly the thing for paid and regularly drilled men to fire against, and on the same terms as a volunteer force. We learn that a grant of two 40-pounder Armstrong guns has been made to the Naval Artillery Volunteers, and the question is where shall they be placed. Our own idea is that the North Head would be the most eligible position. The ground, we believe, belongs to the General Government, but there can be no doubt that a grant of a battery site would be made at once, if tho means were forthcoming to form a suitable one. A temporary shelter for the guns would not be a very expensive affair, and the members of the force would no doubt undertake to excavate a proper position if they were employed in the work for two or three days. The North Head is a position commanding the entrance to the harbour, which would be rendered almost impossible of acoeai for ordinary oruiieri, if fortified and de-

fended by these two heavy pieces of ordnance. Tn a case of this kind the Provincial Government might contribute in some degree to the object desired.