THE CULT OF MUSKETRY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 74, 10 November 1911, Page 8

THE CULT OF MUSKETRY.

ARRIVAL OF LI HUT. WALLING- h FOR I). 1' HOW TO BECOME AN EFFICIENT .! DEFEN D ELL TJio man who lias- in six different years established ids right to claim V|m proud title of “host shot in the Hritish Army,” and is admittedly one of the foremost authorities on musketry in the whole world, must 1)2 an acquisition to any country, and especially so to one tmvc has just adopted a system of universal training. Lieut. . A. Wallingford is the man whose services New Zealand lias been fortunate in securing, and he arrived by the Maheno yesterday to take up Ids now appointment, says 'I nor day s Auckland ‘•.Star.” Air Wallingford has, moreover, gained the gold medal far revolver shooting in the imperial Army on two occasions, and the silver medal on nine oth. rs, besides which he is credited with knowing as much about all arms, automatic and other--1 wise, from a Maxim gun down to a | pocket pistol, as any man either side of the Equator. He is not only an expert marksman, but knows all about small arms from A to /, and his opinion, therefore, that to turn out a satisfactory user of a rifle you must catch Idm young, will bo useful news for those people who are protesting against the introduction of universal training. - “I am positively certain of this fact,” remarked the lieutenant in the course of a talk this afternoon, “that you have adopted in tins country the only logical course for an efficient system of defence. The boy is always the enthusiast, and he enthuses by nature over a gun, winch .3 ue‘cecsary if you want to turn out a man to handle our modern 'weapons effectively when the contingengy arises. iJy the way, that was a .-.ploudd achievement which your K.qgs f ollego hoys put up in getting eighth in tiie Empire Cup competici in. J had a team of hoys in that mutch myself, but not in the s ddor. It was a team of .16 Fly the School ncys, ragged little fellows most of them, hut chock full of enthusiasm at ilie notion of learning how to shuor. .Do you know that after i had instructed those youngsters in the n«e or the rifle and put them up to the points, two of the,.. 10 found the bud’s t-y.e every time of asking out of the six first shots they had ever fired in their lives. Could you do that with grown men? Let mo tell yon what happened to a team of JOS old soldiers; tnc oldest was about 60 years, and most of them had 20 years of sprvice behind them. I nursed them gently, put them on to everything worth knowing, and, believe me, 11 out of the 108 didn’t find the the target ht all. That team of Hytho hoys came ninth in the junior competition. Start training the hoy. Jt gives him confidence, nerve, and self-discipline unconsciously, for he wants to become a good shot,- and the ofcly way of becoming-one is to ho physically clean and fit. It helps-to train both* body and mind, and apart, altogether from tiie military side of the business, goes more towards making n man of him than almost anything J know. Never mind so ranch about’ turning out a soldier, so long as you turn out a man who lias the qualities and knowledge and nerve to use them to the best advantage when tiie pinch comes along. And that is what the* .universal system of training will do. As for the military side, the country that waits till a scrap is in sight before rounding up its citizens to show them how to keep tiie other fellow out is badly in need of a little phrenological advice, especially in these days of high grade weapons and scientific fighting gear generally.” Lieutenant Wallingford, who as a musketry instructor at Home studied both the mechanical and the human element to pretty well tiie last word, is a member of the Secret Commission regarding the keeping of the Brhisfi rifle up-to-date. The present service rifle he regards as about the best of all arms in military use at tiie present day, and with certain improvements, which will, lie considers, bo effected when the Commission is composed principally of infantry officers instead of artillery men, it will bo about as near perfection as may be. A new bullet has now also been devised after the German pattern, but with improvements, which for any, range up to 2700 yards lie thinks will bo hard for any of them to better. It weighs 174 grams, against the 150 of the German bullet, and possesses an aluminium core, which gives it a better balance than the other. Of the automatic rifles he says there is

a long way yot to go, hut that such an improvement would he a great advance in the efficiency of the average rifleman there seems no doubt at all. From what Mr Wallingford remarked concerning the exploits already performed on the present gun, it would seem that a well-trained man can become pretty dangerous with it. In the musketry scliooi of the British Army, for instance, the rate of shooting aimed at and {Achieved is A 3 rounds a minute, no shots that miss the target to coifnt, while on one occasion when ho visited the French musketry school at Chalons, the lieutenant astonished the natives hy putting in 42 shots to the minute, which, of course, includes working the bolt and rosighting every time. “Yot the territorials complained when the shooting standard was fixed at eight rounds a minute that it was impossible,” laughed Lieutenant Wallingford.