PUTIKI RIFLE RANGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19732, 29 December 1926, Page 8

PUTIKI RIFLE RANGE

AN HISTORIC GROUND SCENE OF DOMINION CHAMPIONSHIPS . The hundreds of people who passed ! the Putiki Rifle Range on their way Ito the Mianawatu races and further ■ south yesterday were not very curious I when they heard the sharp bark of the ■ latest pattern .303 Lee-Enfield rifle. They noted that a shooting meeting was in progress and passed on. Little did those people know, and little do _the present generation in genie ral know that m&ny historic rifle shooting meetings have taken pla.ee on p 'thc sand-swept and weed-covered pad-i [•lock on the right of the present range, j < , Scenes of Many Championships ’ ' I Putiki used to be the scone of the New Zealand Rifle Championships and 'there were many sad hearts among the 1 old marksmen when the late Colonel i Sonimerville, the popular chief executive officer, announced in March • 1910 that the Government intended conl trolling the meeting and that the (venue of the championship would be changed to Trentham. Of the prominent marksmen of those days, Rifleman Arthur Ballinger is still going strong, and he was one of the keenest of those competing at the West Coast meeting yesterday. In reminiscent mood, Mr Ballinger told a “Chronicle” reporter anecdotes of those days of yore. He referred especially to the Martini-Henry days when there was very keen competition between himself and Captain W. S. King of Christchurch, then known as Bandmaster King of Oamaru. Great Fight For Belt Mr Ballinger had won the champion belt twice and in 1899 Captain King swept the pool and w r on the belt easily, jin 1900 both Ballinger and King were ' well up in the aggregate, arid interest was intense when it became known ‘ both had a chance of winning the belt outright. However, a man named Nelson came with a great rattle over the conduing stages and bdat both the ; champions. Both Captain King and Rifleman i Ballinger have represented the DoI minion at the Bisley meeting in England.