To Make Marksmen.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 5, 29 July 1908, Page 45

To Make Marksmen.

PROJECT OF NEW ZEALANDERS. Mr. P. A. Vaile has furnished the “Times” with some particulars of the scheme on which he is engaged, in conjunction with Mr. H. E. Partridge, of Auckland, New r Zealand, for the encouragement of rifle shooting and the production of marksmen among the people of England. His proposal is that there should be offered annually for proficiency in rifle shooting a certain number of rifle scholarships or bonuses, perhaps 40 or more, of the value of £25 a year, which would be tenable for from one to three years, the money being either paid over to the winners in cash by periodical instalments or applied to provide them with instruction in some branch of learning. He believes that within a few weeks of the prizes being advertised applications would be received from 100,000 or more men anxious to compete for them, and that in this way an enormous stimulus would bo given to the popularity of rifle shooting, not only directly among the competitors by the hope of success and the prosnect of fame, but also indirectly through the interest that would be aroused in their performances among their relatives and friends. The difficulty of finding ranges at which the men could both learn to shoot and compete for the prizes he would get over by the aid of the sub-target machine. For this contrivance it is claimed that it enables a man to become an efficient shot with the service rifle without ever seeing a full-sized range. In using it the learner takes aim with an ordinary rille in the ordinary way at a target which, though it is only a few yards away from him, presents the same difficulties as it would at full range, because its size is proportionately reduced, and the score which he would have made had he been firing at a full-sized target at full range is automatically -recorded on a card arranged near the muzzle of his rifle. This machine is supplied to the ships of the American navy, the Canadian Government has provided 500 of them for its army and 250 for its schools, and in the British army there are some 400 in

use, purchased, however, by the private efforts of officers or out of regimental funds, and not by the War Office. Another contrivance of which Mr. Vaile considers use might be made in connection with his scheme is one which would permit the reopening of many rifle ranges that have been closed on account of danger to the public, and the action of which depends on a control arrangement whereby the firing of the rifle is rendered impossible unfess it be aimed at a point that is within the safety area. Mr. Vaile states that Mr. Haldane has expressed approval of his idea and promised assistance, and has also pointed out to him that the county under the territorial army scheme already provide a machinery which might be used with advantage in furthering the project.