CADETS OF THE EMPIRE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6492, 11 April 1908, Page 12

CADETS OF THE EMPIRE

RIFLE CONTESTS FOR SCHOOLBOY MARKSMEN. PROPOSED NEW ZEALAND TEAM. (From Our Special Correspondent.)' LONDON, February 23. Colonel Lovwiay’s idea of bending a team of New Zealand cadets to England next August to compete for Lord Roberto’ trophy at LisKy is welcomed with omliusiaoin by Dr R. J. E. Hanson, K.N.v.R., the hon. secretary of “Lord Roberts’s Boys/' the London schoolboy./ snooting emu, iie tells me that if mo Now Zealand boys come Home, as suggested, they will be made the guest* of “Lord Roberts's Boys," and that an influential hospitality committee is already being Domed. Hitheilo the great mass of English schoolboys have had no cadet carps and no competitions, and it is tho object of the Roberts trophy io supply a wain jn this direction, and give me boys of the Empircau opportunity of competing against each other in niarksinau.tnip. The competition is open to all boys “of British parentage/* a term which includes foreigners naturalised in British colonies and bona hde icsidcnts therein.

If a full team is unable to come from Now Zealand it is hoped that at leant one or two cadets can bo sent over to compete for the Lady Gwendolen Guinness trophy for individual marksmen. This trophy is the property of the National liitio .Association, and is open for competition to any British schoolboy in camp at Bisley in August in each year, who is under sixteen years of age ou July Ist. The winner of the trophy each year receives a silver medal. The conditions are a lighter and seven rounds at 200 yards and 500 yards, service like, any military position. The “first shoot for the Roberts trophy for Imperial schoolboys takes place this year, and the competition will continue annually. The education and defence authorities conjointly of each portion of the Empire shall bo entitled to enter on© team of eight schoolboy marksmen, British boys of British parentage. The targets and scoring will be similar to those in use at Bisley in the first stage of the King’s Brize, but at only two distances, viz?, 200 yards and 500 yards. Service rifles will bo used, and N.R.A. King’s conditions applied. The firing will take place between January Ist and August 31st in each year, in Scotland, .Ireland,' Wales, and the colonies. In England the match will, if possible, be fired at Bisley in August. I am indebted to Dr Hanson for detail® of the scores in the Imperial match last August between teams representing New Zealand. Victoria, Natal, and

''Lord Roberts's Boys/’ The last-named team put iip the best total, but Natal and Victoria ran them close. By this mail Dr Hanson is sending to Cadet McMahon, who beaded the list of scorers in the New Zealand team, a copy or Lord Roberts’s book, "Twenty-one icars in India.” “Following arc tho scores:

*3T:red by an oversight, although eighteen days over age. Th© cadet commandants write warmly welcoming such international matches between th© boys in State-aided schools. No doubt but that the "Roberts" trophy competition will be taken up as keenly this and ensuing years. Ontario has just sent for 4000 copies of the "Roberts" Trophy Circular. Natal and New Zealand and others .are equally keen. Colonel Molyneux (Commandant of Cadets. Natal) writes:—"At the recent 'Transvaal Cadets' Sisley’ (December 18th, 21st, 180 T) my boys secured eleven matches out of eighteen, bringing away two floating trophies, twentytwo silver cups, six gold medals, and nmety-eix other prizes, out of a total of 141. My 'Babies’ (cadets under 15 years of age) simply swept the board; service rifles ('M.L.E.O were used. , . . t do wish England would institute compulsory training in all State-aided schools in the British Isles, the same as we hare here. Would that England had but a few more men (such as Lord Roberts) t# assist in roneing its peoplein Parliament, on the platform, with the help of the pres*, to the urgent necessity for such training, and tha ultimate rewilts of the lame.

It ia evident, from, the nbore. that Boer boys cannot touch Natal boys in accuracy of their shooting. s

IMPERIAL MATCH, 1907, Lord Roberts's Boys. Fired August 2nd, 1907, at Bislev: — 33. May, 344-5555 ... 31 S. Meyer, 4-145555 32 W. Hacker, 2235555 27 Scadcng, 234-3445 26 J. Hardy* 2331415 25 W. Gardner, 223M35 22 J. Ondrusek, 2223351 18 Total ... Average, 25.5. ■NATAL. Fired September, 1907:* 204 Cadet W. H. Binnie 30 Cadet 0. R. Gurney 28 Cadet H. R. Miller 28 Cadet D. A. Curie 27 Cadet W. B. Hathorn 37 Cadet H. N. Gold 23Cadet D. H. Houston 21 y .Cadet A, H. Neumann 18 Total Average, 25.375. VICTORIA (Australia.) Fired August 2nd, 1907: — 203 Cadet W. Duncan £8 Cadet L. Leader ... 28 Cadet J. W. Minn 27 Cadet R. Lachford 26 Cadet F. Briggs ... 20 Cadet C. Birdsey 23 Cadet R. Solomon Cadet W. Edgar ... 21 Total Average, 26.125. NEW ZEALAND. Fired August-2nd, 1907: — 201 Cadet McMahon 28 Cadet Wilson Cadet Wiuchcomb 23 Cadet Thomson ... Cadet Jordan ,,, 20 39 Cadet Allen ... 18 • Cadet Pierard 16 Cadet 'Williamson 16 Total Average, 20.375. LORD ROBERTS’S BOYS. 163 Fired September. 1907, Range: — at Sun street E. Barltrop 34 H. Chapman 31 W. Hacker ... - ... 29 *B, May 29 C. Knight 25 W. Withers 24 W. Gardner ... 24 S. Meyer 23 Total ... Average, 27.375. 219