VOLUNTEERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4606, 10 March 1902, Page 7

VOLUNTEERS.

The amount of £54 5s has been allotted to the Wellington City Volunteers as their portion of the grant of £2OO passed by Parliament for tho encouragement of rifle shooting in tho Wellington district. The corps to bo entitled to participate in tho' £54 5s grant arc tho companies of tho First Wellington Rifle Battalion, the Heretaunga Mounted Rifles, tho Reserve Brigade, Naval Artillery Volunteers of Wellington and Potono, D Battery Wellington, Submarine Miners Wellington, Engineers Wellington, Cycle Corps Wellington and Wellington Cadet Corps. LieutenantColonel Collins is to subdivide the grant into such prizes as shall, in his opinion, Go calculated to encourage tho largest number of competitors.. The sub-dis-ricts of Wellington receive tho following allocations:—Wairarapa,. £25 13s; Hawke’s Bay, £4l 12s; Wanganui, £46 14s; Taranaki, £3l 16s. The competitions will ho open to Permanent Artillerymen, Volunteers, rifle clubs and citizens.

Tho following is the team that represented the First Battalion Wellington Rifles in the volley and field firing events at the New Zealand Rifle Assocation meeting at Trentham, and which came first in each competition:— Lieutenant Hobbs, Zealandia Rifles; Colour-Sergeant Lacey, Highland Rifles; Sergeant Bunckepburg, Zealandia Rifles; Private Turner, Highland Rifles; Private‘Hollard, College Rifles; Private Head, Highland Rifles; Private Jackson, City Rifles • Private Nelson, Highland Rifles; Private D. Claridge, Civil Service Rifles ;Private McLean, Highland Rifles; Private R. Claridge, Civil Service Rifles. Prizes won—Cash, £27 10s; District Shield, value £9O; Colonial Ammunition Cup, value £7O. Of tho above team all but tho two Claridges and Nelson had been firing all through the meeting. Appended is tho second team of the Wellington Rifle Battalion that gained third place in the volley firing competition at the Trentham meeting:— Colour-Sergeant Roaehe, Post and Telegraph Rifles; Corporal Keller, Private Aamodt, Private Charles Jones, Private W. Jones, Private Stevenson, Private Raven, Private Macaskill, all of Wellington Guards; Corporal Prendevillo and Private Dodwojl, College Rifles; Private McLeod, Post and Telegraph Rifles. The following appointments and promotions appear in last week’s “Gazette”:—Lieutenant W. S. Canavan to be captain (militia); Frederick G. Kimbell to be lieutenant, Stratford Rifles. - The resignation by Lieutenant R. J. S. Seddon of his commission as lieutenant of tho Heretaunga Mounted Rifles has been accepted. , Volunteer regulations are gazetted for tho conduct of the School of Military Instruction for officers and noncommissioned officers. Free railway passes and passages will be issued to join the courses-and return home, and students may bo accommodated in barracks at their option. The following allowances will be made ters corps, a grant of £4 for officers and .£2 and a badge for non-commis-sioned officers. Outlying corps, officers 6s 6d per day; non-commissioned officers, 5s per day. An extra grant of £2 per annum will bo made for two years after tho date of passing tho examination towards the capitation of corps for each officer and non-commis-sioned officer who has passed in all subjects. Officers will not bo permitted to pass the examination for promotion to the next higher rank until they have completed three years’ service in-their own rank, unless for tho purpose _ of actual promotion, except as. provided for in the regulations of the School of Military Instruction.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sommerville referred on Friday to the absence of regulations as to uniforms to ho worn by members of rifle clubs. There should, ho said, be a specified uniform for them just as there was for other branches of Volunteers—they were just as much a portion of tho Defence Force as any other branch was. He hoped that the Minister for Defence would take the matter in hand, and have regulations drafted to meet tho case. Speaking with reference to the team for Bisley, tho Lieutenant-Colonel said there would be absolutely no favour shown. The picking of the team would he a matter for anxious deliberation.

There is considerable speculation among shooting men as to the probable personnel of the New Zealand team for Bisley. It is, however, conceded by practically everyone that Hyde, Hawthorne and W. Loveday, the first three ,men in tho championship aggregate, are assured of selection. McGregor, who did not fire at the meeting just oyer, is considered to be another certainty by tho quid mines if ho can get leave.