THE NEW ZEALANDERS AT BISLEY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10900, 6 September 1897, Page 3

THE NEW ZEALANDERS AT BISLEY.

The Cajip, Bisi.Er, July 25. Since the arrival of the New Zeilaad competitors for tho N.R.A. meeting the wen have : gone ilirough a very systematic course of I training on tho Bisley Eange. The second week in Jane paw all bat Bandmaster King, of Oamara, using ths new Lee-Metford rifle, and that gentleman landed aboub the end of the rnostb. Tbis is the firs!; year that any considerable number cf competitors hava coma ■ from Nesv Zealand, and, as luck would h&ve it, it it the first meeting at which the Lee-lleiford ■ was used. 'Xhe rifles were issued to t'ae voluoi teers here at the beginning of the season, and j that only gave them a few months' longer I practice than the colonials. The regulations j I controlling the National Kifle Association tare rather different from the New Zealand j f ones. Ouly one sighting shot caus aud i j must ba taken, and it is not . allowed j j to hs taken into cocsideration in estimating j • the score; and, again, at 200 yds the raost j .' of. the contests have to bs iked kneeling.. j All these conditions to a very large extent go to : lower the scores, aud these facts have to be ; reckoned with when any comparison is 1 caado with New Zealand shooting. The te&m t.s it arrived frcm vNew Zealand comprised Gnnner Webster and Sergeant Hazard, of ' Auckland ;■ Chief Petty-officer Williams, Gunner Howe, ' and Pri rate's Balliager, Hawthorne, and Paisons, of Wellington ; Major Sommer7ilia and Corporal Strachun, of Wanganui: Corporals Simpson and Backs and Privates Parsons and Harris, of Canterbury ; and Private Richardson, of Ofcago. Subsequently Bandmaster King, of Oamaru. joined the team, and Sergesnb Sbmmerville, from the Jubilee Traap, and later ou Private Gebbie, of OSage, anil the writer took their places among the competitors. Altogether no less than 16 competitors from New Zealand shot through the meeting, aoma of them as volunteers, others as allcomers. For some time after their arrival the men used the Bisley range, and after thai; was closed for the preliminary work of the meeting the Ilford raoge, to the oast of London, and the Runemtde range, to the west, were placed at the disposal of the feam. When the writer joined tho team at Ilford the men had settled down very well indeed to their new- conditions and the new weapoD, and every day's practice placed them well up -among-the 90' a, while scores of 98 and 97 out of the possible of 105 were.:nob at all uncommon. The weak spot: really was the 200 yds knee shooting, and the men manifested Irs3 confidence at that range than at any other. The verdict on the new rifle was that it was an excellent shooting weapon, but greatly affected by righthand winds. While 2, 3. 4, and 5 degrees served for almost any left-hand wind encountered .6, 7, 8, and 10 degress were required for winds from the right, aud at times as high as a 21deg line had to ba used. The rifles themselves all shot away so the left, and to coucteract this the foresight is set away to the left; but so neeuTmr is the shooting of the weapon that eveu with this arrangement of the sights oa a calm dsy at 200yds< aim mu3t be taken halfway across the right of tte> target. The meeting commenced on 'Monday, the 12th inst., with an unimportant team match, but the individual competitions did not' commence until Tuesday, the 13th. Ooly a few matches are upon the regular programme, some are open for volunteers only, others for allcomers. The great bulk of tho matches are of a different class; for these entries.are all post entries, and the sama competitor may enter as often as he pleases. They are called continuous matches; dome are shot at every range, and the competitors fill up their spai'e time in shooting through these matches. It is needless' to gay that with ■some 2000 competitors, unlimited entries, and only 21 prizes, a main has little''chant's of getting a prize unless he puts on the possible. In oue caso something like eight more possibles were made than prizes given, and that, nurnb?r of possibles were counted oat; " On the Tuesday, tbe first day of the meeting, nothing but these continuous laatches were fired, and. as thsy were all open for sever&l days nothing was i completed by the evening. The day was' spent by the competitors in getting accustomed to the different ranges. The weather -was very fine, and gave every prospect of a settled week. Wednesday was a repetition ia regard to weather of the previous day—a hot, sweltering sun, and ail day a strong breeze from the right, which varied up to 21deg of wind, or 14ffc at 800 yds. The Imperial, one of the few bi? matches; was shot on this day, at racges 200, 500, and 600 yards; and the Secretary of State for War, a 10-shot match, afßooyds. Our mea did not come up quite to well in either of' these matches, but Gunner Webater scored 32, 32, 30 —total 94-, —-and secured a place in the first 100 who were qualified to shoot, in the second stage of the Imperial. ~'ln the Secretary of State .for War, Corporal Banks (of Christchurch) took I twelfth place with 5, 5, 5, 4. 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5-46. In this match Guauer Weffster was counted out with 45.and Corporal Strachau 44; but with only 32 prizes amidst Bucb. a number of compe-titors-there was very little to come and go on. i Besides the service rifle matches a number of I matches 'were shot with sporting and match I .rifles..- •;' '•- • . ~..-.. -■•' -. '■' •■'

Thursday was occupied with the public schools and the continuous matches. . • . . ,

On Friday the greatest team match''ia ths Empire—the Kolapore Cup—was shot. The match is fired' by teams of eight' volunteers selected as follow: —One from the rmother country and one from each of1 the: colonies, including India. The Canadians are grouped together and * supply one team: This wag the first, lime New Zealand had? shot, and the largest; number of teams that had • ever . competed for the Cup were entered for this meeting. ■ It was alao the first competition since the issae of tEe nsw rifle. After a most exciting contest between New Zealand and Victoria, the latter secarsd the trophy with 751 points as against the 748 of the New Zsalanders. The shooting ail over was magnificent, the highest scorer being C.P.O. Williams, of Wellington, with a score of 97. By mistake the acore was credited by the press to Private Hawthorne, of the same city. No doubt little comparison can bs made with previous years' shooting, seeing that an altogether new weapon was uaod; but frequenters of Bisley assert that the shooting of the Victorians and New Zsalanders had never been equalled. Immense enthusiasm prevailed throughout tbe camp, and before the day had gone Major Sommerville was in'receipfc of congratulatory messages from the Bight Hon. R. J. Seddon (Premier), the Hon. W. P. Reeves (Agent-general), .and other prominent New Zealanders, in England and Scotland.' By the end of the week cables of a congratulatory nature were received from Messrs Wakelin and Bitchelor on behalf of .the Christchnrch riflemen, from Captain Harman (of Christehurch), from the Mayor of Wellington, and one from Hawera. Messrs Hawthorne and Ballinger were also the recipients of congratulatory messages.

Of the continuous matches, several that had bean running since Tuesday finished. In the Hepplestone, seven shots at SQOjds, Private Hawthorne, of Wellington, made 35 (ths possible), aad tied for first placeT In. shooting off the tie he was not successful. In the Pixley, seven shots at 600 yds, Hawthorne again tied for third piaca with another possible, and Sergeant Sorntoerville, with 34-, received £1.

Saturday was another off-day so far as regular matches were concerned, the only matches.firsd being the second stage of the Imperial and the Wimbledon Cap of 10 shots at 600/ds. -Gunner Webster alone was qualified to fire in the former, bnt made a pooij, score at 800?ds, receiving only eighty-eighth place and a£2 prize. The conditions were favourable in the Wimbledon in the evening and the Bhooting very keen. The cup was won with a; (i possible." Private Bsllinser (Wellington; secured fourth place- with 5. 5, 5, 5, 4-, 5, 5, b, 5, 5 —49, and Corpora! Banks (Chri3tchurch) 5, 5, A, : 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5—43. There were only sis prizes, su that the New Zealanders were very well up ; This finished ths first week's shooting. Ijor the .second week came the larger prizes, like the Quaen's, and the side shows occupy a less prominent position. ■ On Monday, 19th, the 200 and 500 yard 3 ranges .of the first stage of the Queen's was fired. Fourteen New Zealandcrs comr peted, and the total number of entrauts was gome 2000. Under the conditions of this match the top"300 fire a second stage at 500 and. 600 yaras, and ou the aggregates then made the leading 100, known as t.he " Queen'e Hundred," Sre off at 800 and 900 yards. The following were the highest New Zealand scores on the first day :—Williams and Hawthorno 65, Harris 64-, Richardson aDd King 63, Ballinger and Howe 62. The fiae weather experienced throu^houi the meeting broke this day with a very haavy thunderstorm, which broke over the camp aad the surrounding country.

Tuesday saw ths first stage of tbs Queen's completed, the scoring being altogether of a phenomenal character, the luading man securing 102 and 16 men scoring. IOC) and over. To determine the leading 300 no less than 100 scores of 93 had to ba shot off to secure the. last nine places. To show the keennea3 of the competition score? of 83 had to be shot off for place 3 in the 300, tbe new rifle being largely responsible for the 10 additional points. The New Zsalcndars on the whole did well in this matcn, five of the 14- securing places in the 300. and fonr being amoog?t th's 100 ties to shoot off. Their Ecore3 ware as fellow :—

The prizas gained by 'she above are not defcer- ' rained unfci). the second utage. To sfaoot off with scores of 93 for t'ne last few places in the 300 were Private A. Ballinger, Corporal Simpson, Private Parsons, C.P.O. Williams. On subsequently firing off none were successful, bub j r.l! t™V £2 Tiriz»s. Sergeant Soinmer?iile with i 92 :au;-r( ill. i

In the Daily Graphic, of seven shots, a* < 200 yds, any position, no less than 45 " possibles" were mule, one by Colouel Bank?, of Canterbury who secured fortieth place. One hundred and thirty-eighir m»n I fcored 34, aud included in thess wera Privates I Hawthorne and Bellinger, of Wellington, and i | Harris, of Canterbury. In counting out the ' ' ties Private Ballinger alone secured a place in the prize list. j Tae next match fired was the Margins | Challenge Cup, for volunteers only, stand- j I ing at 200vd8. Four 33's were made, and 12 30' d were counte.i out. Private Harris secured sixtieth place with 30, and Corporal Simpson eightieth, piacs with s. like number. ! The Perioet, one of the continuous matches, • of seven shot* sfc 500 fdx, clessd to-dsy, showing C.P.O. Williams (Wellington) 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5-34, and 5, 5, 5 for his tiss. taking tweutyfonrth prize. There were 12 " possibles.1' I Daring she shooting the cr.mp was visited by I a thunderstorm of excessive violence, acd com- | peiitors wers drenebsd to the 2kin. The down- ! pour lasted for a few minutes only, and flooded | mounds and ireccheß. Ons of the tents, too, j I was struck by lightning. I I Wednesday saw. the ficst stage of tee S6. | 'George's fired at 500 and 600 yards. There i we:e no less than 14 scores of 69 out of a j possible 70, atsd 16 only of the 66's managed to get into the 100 who qualified to shoot in the 'second stage. The following New Zealanders ! made 66 snd over :— I - ' 500 600 yds. yds. Tl. Bandmaster Kißx(OJago) 34 33 —67 Private Howe (Wellington) ... 3i I" — ™ Private Balliuger (Wellington) ... 31 Ao — ofa Private Kichardson (utago) ... 33 33 —bb Again the meetiz>g was visited with a heavy downpour of ra.in, rendering the shooting of some of the squads very erratic. Several of oar mea had the misfortune to be drawn just at (he time, otherwise the shooting was quite tip to the desired standard. On all sides the shooting was phenomenal, so much so that the subject oE having a centre with a higher value inaide the, "bull" is being discussed by members. King secured ?. placo in the St. George's Hundred, but on firing oS the ties of 66 the usual bad luck appeared to haunt our men, and none of them f ecured a place, but had to be content with £2 prices esch. King's prizs will be determined on Saturday. Thursday was a very busy day, there being the Graphic of seven shots at 500jrd? and the Daily Telegraph of seven shots at 600 yds, in addition to the leading 300 of the Queen'o firing off the second stage of 10 shots ab 500 yds and 15 at 600 yds. In the Dsily Telegraph Corporal Banks, of Christahurch, scored " the possible" with 10 others, snd shooting off the tie scored 5, 5, 4, taking sixth place. King, of Oarnaru, took eighty-seventh place and £2 with a score of 33. ■ 3 Great excitement centred in the second stige of fae Queen's, and the shootiDg proved magnificent. At the first range (500yds)- ; the New Zealanders scored sb follow :— \ ■ . " First Stage. 500yos. . 'tl. Pfc. Howe .SB 5555 55 5 5 55-50-146 Pt. Hawthorne ... 95 i 4555 Bo i 5 5-47—142 Pfc. Harris ...94 44 44 55 444 5-43-W Pt. Richardson ... 94 45 353 5.5 5 5 5-4.>-137 Band-mr. King ... 91 34445 4a 5 4 5-M-ltf The leading score, at this range was 151. At 600ycs Howe fell away sadly through an error in placing his wind line, while the others fairly well maintained their position, bnt the selection of the. Queen'i Hundred included only Hawthorne. The scores were a3 follow :— ■ Scow. eOflyds. Tl. Ft. Hawthorne ... 142 545455552435355-65-207 Pt Kichardson ... 137 553055155454554-<jß-200 PL Hows 146 441353534440354-SS-SI4 Bind-master Kins 137 5555-1355055004- h3-200 Pt. Harris... ... 137 532555i35*4523.4-59-19b The kading man Scott, the winner of tbe silver medal, had at this stage scored 219. Hawthorne's place will not be determined until tbe Quean's Hundred shoot off to-morrow, bub- £4 prizes go to Kichardson lC6th place, Howe 136 th, King 187 th, and Harris 264 th: PvOBEET M'NAB.

; 200 .500 yds. yrls. Private Howe, Wellington... 28 34 Private Hawthorne, W'gt'n 3i 33 Private Harris, Canterbury 32 32 Private Kickardeon, Otago 29 34 Bandmaster King, Ofcago ... 29 31 GOO yds. Tl. 34 — 9B 30 — 95 SO — 94 31 — 91 31 - 9i