TERRITORIALS & THE D.R.A,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1687, 1 March 1913, Page 6

TERRITORIALS & THE D.R.A,

A TESTING GROUND? Tho programme of the Dominion Rifle Association, revised under the eyes of the Dominion Section of the Imperial General Staff, is supposed, on paper, to provide a national testing ground at Trentham Riflo Rango for marksmen from the Territorials, Rifle Clubs, and Senior Cadets. ' To invest the rifle championship meeting with an,approved military value, there are provided tests in musketry as applied to tho conditions of actual warfare. But events have shown, as was pointed out by commentators .on tho rango to-day, that tho D.R.A. is supported only by \ tho rifle clubs—that is, speaking broadly. Suoh a modest sprinkling comes from the Territorial Force and tho Senior Cadets that these two. departments of tho New Zealand military system can hardly be said to bo tested in the senso that the D.R.A. programme professes to do. For example, one of the important events of yesterday—the most' important from the Territorial officer's point of view —was the regimental teams' match, a test in fire control and discipline in an "advance attack." The competing teams were.all furnished by the rifle clubs! So also was the case with tho field-firing event. , Not a single Territorial regiment is represented at this meeting by a team of marksmen. The wiseacres hero are saying that this state of affairs will compol some alterations in tho metier of the D.R.A., or, alternatively, raise the whole question of musketry efficiency in the Territorial Force.