DEFENCE NOTES.

Southland Times, Issue 14577, 18 November 1910, Page 3

DEFENCE NOTES.

(By "Vernier." Musketry Beffulations, 1909. Messrs Lillicrap, McNaughton have a limited number of the above work on hand. This book is thoroughly up-to-date, quite recently issued and essential to every officer and N.C.O. members of the forces locally are advised to invest in one. District Order. In view of the approaching training season, the attention of the O's.C. regiments and battalions is directed to Infantry Training, 1905, Part V., section 178 to IS2. The first half of the training when carried out by more than one squadron or company is to be the squadron or company training. N.C.O's should be assembled previously tor training as in section IS2. A syllabus for the approval of the O.C. District of the system of training is invariably to be submitted before-hand, but it need not be rigidly adhered to. Attention is directed to District Order 254 with regard to Divine Service in camp. Lieut.-col. Smyth's Inspection. The attendance of companies at this inspection was not near as representative as it might have been. Notice was certainly short but the fact that the parade was called under mobilization regulation should, render this excuse a negligible quantity. The lines of communication to give the regulation a military term had failed obviously in some place or other and it behoves O.'sC. companies as a result to once more place matters on a satisfactory footing. Mobilization parades are common enough now-a-days to allow of them being put on a basis realising successful issues. It was apparent during the inspection that members had dressed in their marching qrder uniform, hurriedly and slipshod; certainly .something more on line with the Army pattern could reasonably have been expected. The inspecting officer drew attention to' these defects with patient forbearance. As was anticipated an operation associated with the field was the order for the evening. Some twenty men under a N.C.O. were fold off as the enemy and under (he direction of Lieut.-col. Smyth assumed a position in a clump of trees to the north of the Park School. This body represented an advance party of the enemy's mam body. A small post •as located for a time to the south of J

the advance party ostensibly to deceive the attacking- party or their scouts. The instructions given to this post were to fire a few shots at the attackers" scouts and then to double back to their own. force. This they carried out and eventually found themselves strongly entrenched behind several obstacles in the way of deep trenches and their own. party. The scouts of the attacking party were first apprised of the enemy's presence by a short burst of fire stopping their advance. Reports were hurx-ied back, acquainting the officer commanding- of the state of affairs, and after consultation he decided to halve his force, one half going east then north to tha enemy's rear and the other along tha avenue. At this stage Lieut.-col Smyth, stopped the operations and all troops were called in. He assembled the officers and N.CO.'s, r.nd detailed the plan of operation. The fault lay in the proposed attack. At night, troops attacking should fight with the bayonet They should advance to the located position of the enemy in two lines at a distance of 50 paces between each, and clear them out with the bayonet Officers and N.CO.'s would find the requirements of such operations stated in their infantry; books. The scouting was good and better: than was generally seen during field manoeuvres, it was a common' occurrence for scouts when fired upon to retaliate in a like manner. The scouta locally had not done that, but had quietly withdrawn an.l conveyed the intelligence of what they had seen to their, O's.C. This was co-rect. The behaviour-] of the troops during the evening had ( been favourable. There was a freedom; from chattering and a considerable steadiness generally that' was good to* look, upon. ' During the afternoon of Thursday; last week, Lieut.-col. Smyth insepctect the companies of the High School Cadets, on the general work that falls to theirt lot under the new regulations. t Bifle \

On Friday morning Lieut-col. Smyths inspected the proposed site of the nevn rifle range in the vicinity of Hastings* The matter of public safety so far as the height of the background is concern-: ed seemed a matter for Bullets, especially the ..311's have art awkward manner of behaving once they, become richochets, and exactly where? each will find a destination is not to ba estimated. An instance in point occurred last week in Dunedin where the local Rifle Club has suffered the temporary; loss of their range, owing to representations that .311 bullets have been found in Ravensbourne residences. "It is difficult," states a contemporary, "to believe that bullets from this range find their way to Ravensbourne. In the first: place there is about 300 feet of hill behind the gargets, and its members are) seasoned shots, who think too much ofl ammunition to discharge their rifles at random." Cadets are blamed for the circumstance, but the theory is hardlyflattering to their abilities, nie erratic flight pursued by richochets could quite possibly account for the unwelcome missiles and on the principle that it is better to'be sure than sorry the possibilities are here noted that due consideration and thought be given to the Invercargill range, and its site. "Wednesday's Shooting-. There was a fair representation o£ riflemen present at Grasmere on Wednesday, when the day was fine for .the pastime. A tricky wind accounted for; some otherwise unexplainable scoring, and a slight lowering of the general average of the best shots. The City Guards were present in strong force for a trophy shoot-over ranges 200 and 500t yards. The scores were good, some of the young shots particularly evidencing; form that promises for the future. The scores 'were:— CITY GUARDS. 200 500 TL Corporal Baldwin >,.- 31 30 Private Hunter .. >. 31 29 —6O Private McKearney >.. 30 29 —59 Private J. Padget ....• 33 23 B.S.M. Robinson ~: 27 28 —55" Lieut. Kelly | ... 30' 23 —53 Private F. Padget ..< 20 SI Private Hanan, .« 26 24 5(» Sergt. Logan ■„. 24 21 Private Brandford ~ 17 12 —29 Private Blackmore ... 13 11 Sergt. Grenville .. 10 IS —23 The Oreti Rifles completed the Lieut. Lyall medal competition, but in the absence of handicaps the final results were not available. A few young shots- were present, but the bulk of the rep. team of this company have not yet put in an appearance at Grassmere. With the Mer-. cantile Shield to be won for the first time at Xmas the Oretis will want all the practice they can get. Scores were; ORETI RIFLES.

200 500 600 Tl. Q.M.S. Cowan .. 29 32 30 —9l Pt. Campbell .., 31 32 27 —9O Sergt. Davidson ~. 30 25 27 —B2 Corpl. Petrie ■.... 31 27 21 79' Capt. Lennie .. 22 31 25 Pte. Barclay .. 30 24 24 —7B Pte. Stewart ... 19 24 15 —SB Pte. Dunwoodie .. 16 12 12 ■— 40 Pte. Robbie .. 14 10 14 —3B The Awarua Rifles completed the competition for Lieut, Cooke's gold medal, the winner .turning up in Private Dixon, who put in somo very fair work over the distances. This tyro made a start last year in a like promising manner, but later dropped shooting altogether. The present trophy should assist materially; in persuading him to adopt the pastime.' There should be little doubt of his ultimate standing as a crack. Aggregate scores:— AWARUA RIFLES. Hep. 500 600 500 600 TL Pte. Dixon ..12 28 26 26 24—116 Pte. Sutherland 6 23 25 30 30 lit Cl.-sgt. England 4 27 22 24 30 107: Pte. Mather ..22 8 5 30 23^<8S DIAGRAMS. 200 yards. Private J. Padget, I.C.G*;

5,5,4,4,5,5,5 SZ. 500 yards. "Private Campbell, O.B*'

600 yards. |Q.M.S. Cowan,

5,5,4,4,5,4,3 Of the diagrams noted above It is to be recorded that at 500 Q.M.S. Cowan'a 32 counts out Campbell's, his shooting reading 4,5,4,4,5,5,5 liim taking the diagram at 600 accounts for the second highest being featured, Mather, Awaruas. put in a hard luck score at 500. His first counter was a miss, which reads like Irish, then he notched six bulls South Island Champion Wills has been Dut recently trying the Minister for Defence's rifle won at Trentham. The crack; aas so far hardly touched his old form, out, of course, like other cracks blames limself and not the rifle. His scores were: 500 yard 5—5,3,3,5,5,5,5, 300 yard 5—4,3,4,5,4,0,4 The range officers on Wednesday were B.S.M. Robinson and Mr A R. Wills. Both were present in their official lities, and deserve the thanks of shootsts for thus setting an example that is ,vell worthy of being emulated. Ranges next week : 500, 600, 700 yards. Range officers, Lieut. Lennie, Corpl. Lee.