The Evening Star. FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 101, 6 May 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1870.

Few are disposed in theory to question the principle of Volunteering, or its advantages, and even necessity in our circumstances ; but it is to be regretted that so little practical sympathy is shown for it in New Zealand. The intention in instituting an interprovincial championship was good, but we fear that without auxiliary means, its results will be practically nil. The " Tir federal" of Switzerland, the pride of the republic, and cherished equally by the cantonal governments, produced a nation of marksmen whose silent power was treated with respect amid the convulsions of surrounding nations ; but, if the residents and Governments of other provinces do as little as Auckland to popularise our " Tir federal," and generalise its advantages, we fear that the body of the people will profit little. The results of the recent shooting in Otago are in the highest degree creditable to our province; and the high score obtained by Messrs. Hazard and -Boardman should be regarded as of provincial concern. The mare so when we consider the disadvantages under which our Volunteers have been labouring in acquiring skill in the use of the rifle, and the fact that nothing but enthusiasm and selfdenial, such as cannot be expected generally, could have overcome those disadvantages. The position of our rifle butts is such as to be practically prohibitive to general rifle practice. That our Volunteers, who nobly devote themselves to preparation for the defence of their country, should sacrifice time and pains to practise drill is [reasonable; but that men who have their every day duties to attend, and their daily bread to win, should have ten miles to march for a shooting practice at Point Chevalier, is not to •be expected; and it is simply in tacit contempt for volunteering that such a state of things should have been allowed to exist. The indifference manifested in this particular by those in whose hands the matter rests is a disgrace. But the distance is not the worst point in this indifference. The shooting range is so adjusted as to reflect the highest credit on the stupidity of its designer. On a reef projecting from south to north into the river, exposed to the force of the wind from every quarter, the butts are placed with water as a background, and the sun shining full in the face of the shooter. The glare and glitter of the water, and the force of the wind combined, produce such satisfactory results as must pleasantly recompense the Volunteer for wearily trudging so many miles for the enjoyment. It is a state of things eminently characteristic of that stolid indifference to things in general which pervades the public spirit of x4tuckland.

Promises have been held out that this evil should be rectified, and an admirable site for a rifle range within an easy distar C 3 of the city, at the side of Mount Eden, has been indicated ; but it haa, for we know not how long, rested at that well known stage, " being talked of." The Rifle Volunteers themselves, at their own expense, have made a sort of clearing, and erected a target, but this is not the way in which a matter of such national importance should be treated. What, we ask, has become of the £150 voted by the Provincial Council for volunteering purposes ? Or in what way

could a portion of it be more usefully devoted than to the fixing of a proper rifle range in the vicinity of the city ? We believe that it will only require an earnest representation from the Volunteers themselves of the true state of the case to effect a remedy. We have a Superintendent, happily not imbued with the spirit of the place, but who seems the incarmation of activity. Let the Volunteers try a deputation; let the case be fairly stated, and we venture to say that neither the entanglements of red tape, nor yet depreciation of the value of the citizen soldiei', will appear in the response. The want of a proper rifle range, and the consequent absence of a spirit of competition, must prove one of the greatest obstacles to the spread of a volunteering spirit, and we hold that it is the duty of every well-wisher to New Zealand to labour in removing every " stone of stumbling" in the way ; for never till we have a local military spirit, and a national guard, of which we are proud, shall we see the end of this cringing and whining for English soldiers, and be imbued with the manliness of self-reliance so sadly wanting in New Zealand.