VOLUNTEER NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7899, 14 November 1904, Page 3

VOLUNTEER NOTES.

[By" Vkdettk.]

I am pleased to hear that the Masterton Bifle Volunteers are proposing to take over the charge of the Rifle Cadets, and I hope the scheme will bo the success it deserves to be.

In addioion to cash prixea (amounting to between £80 and £90) Sergeant Saudford, , of the Christcnureh City Guards, who was the biggest winner amongst the New Zealanders at Bisley, brought back with him a first-class rifle, presented by the Birmingham Small Arms Company, a lung's Hundred badge, a grand aggregate bronze cross, and a silver salver and beaker. Captain H. F. Davis, commanding the Kelburne Rifles, has been awarded the Colonial Auxiliary Forces officers' decoration. This coveted distinction is held by few. Colonel Collins, V.D., is the only other officer at present in this district practically on the active list who holds the decoration. Captain Davis received the auxiliary forces' long service medal three years ago. There is a Defence Force regulation that prohibits the giving of presents to paid servants of the Defence Department. Various expedients to defeat this regulation have been adopted from time to time (says a northern paper). When a popular instructor is leaving for other parts, the difficulty of making him a presentation is overcome by giving him a case of pipes for bis wife, a silver-mounted whisky-flask for his infant daughter, or other more or less appropriate articles. Recently, however, a local volunteer company was faced with an unexpected difficulty; the man to whom a presentation was to be made bad no wife. The resourceful captain who made the presentation solemnly handed the case of pipes to the instructor, and told him they were to be loaned to him by the company. "My only wish," the captain concluded, with a perfectly straight face, " is that you may enjoy good health till the day we ask you to return them 1"

The Masterton Bifle Volunteers go into camp on the Show Grounds on the 24th inst. The Corps is now fifty-six strong. The full strength of the Corps is sixty-three, sixty men and three officers, and this number has to be reached before before the new uniforms are ordered.

The recent meeting at Bisley was productive of a number of records, and a Home paper says that the meeting will probably be remembered in the annals of shooting as a " record " Bisley. During the fortnight it was demonstrated to satisfaction that the Government LeeEnfiekl— many prefer the LeeMetford —as an arm of precision at great distances is hardly inferior in the bauds of a skilled volunteer marksman to the " any" ritie of to-day. Witness the remarkable shoot of sixteen consecutive bull's-eyes achieved by M'Gowan, of the 3rd Lanark, at 900 yds, or the brilliant score run up by that fine veteran Sergeant Proctor, of Elgin (now Corporal Proctor, of Inverness), who, firing over the 200, 500, and 600 yards on the first Thursday ot the meeting, only dropped a couple of points, finishing 103, and, tackling the same task the following day, only dropped four points, giving him 101. Proctor, by the way, has shot more times in the '' King's Hundred " than any other man, and this year made his thirteenth appearance in that honoured position —-a record which will prove somewhat difficult to beat.