VOLUNTEER INTELLIGENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 4043, 10 February 1876, Page 2

VOLUNTEER INTELLIGENCE.

The Volunteers of Wanganui have decided to get up a small-bore match, to take place at the Colonial prize-firing. Prizes Are, to be offered so as to induce good, shots from all parts of the Colony to contend. This is from the 'Southland Times : Private telegrams state that the Defence Office refuses the Dunedin Artillery .Company's request to reconsider the decision come to about its representatives Who qualified.

In reference to the failure of the Auckland City Volunteers to qualify, more than one representativeat the colonial prize firing a 1 correspondent signing himself "Observer" writes the following manjy letter to the ' Herald' in answer to the «Cross's' imputation that Auckland's non-success -was owing to the short Sniders, and attributable mainly to good marking, or in plain English, to cheating :—"Now, the sooner we get rid of this mean, contemptible spirit the better. I have heard bur riflemen 'repeatedly assert that the Thame* marking is not fair &c. Now, lam in a position to state that the rivalry existing between the different companies has, during the late contest there, deprived men of points, which at a Colonial meeting they would have received. But'l would remind my fellow-volunteers that on every occasion when the Thames has been represented fairly at the Colonial meetings where the marking cannot be questioned' they invariably carry off the lion's share of the prizes. In the last match against us the Thames men beat ub on our own ground by over four points per man; and in firing for Sir Julius Vogel's prize they again 'licked' us, although we Bent our own markers to the Thames. Now what does this infer ? Why that we aire, as a rule, inferior to the Thames as shooters. The fault does not lie in the rifles, as some assert., Our .Sniders are new, and we were supplied with them two months before the Thames. The majority of their rifles are converted which have been in use by the Constabulary s for years, and are in many instances defectively sighted. Notwithstanding these difficulties, and the fact that the Thames range is the most inconvenient in the Colony, they are shooting up well, and will leave their mark creditably on this year's contest at Wanganui. One peculiarity in our late contest is the number of men we have making high scores in the first firing, and the total break-down of the whole in the final contest, although the weather was finer." THB CADET COMPETITION. The Oamaru Cadets this year are (remarks the 'N. 0. Times ') taking a very high position in the Colonial firing, three of them on Tuesday morning tying at 63, a score which, so far as we have seen, has not this, year been reached elsewhere. At first the weather was very favorable, but by the. time the 300 yards range was reached a gußty wind had sprung up,' which interfered very much with accuracy of shooting. The six highest scores made were as follow : 100 200 800

C*det B. Dawson; O.G.C. yds. 91 yde. yds.—TL '18 14 — 63 Cadet. D: Gawioor „ 21 23 9—«3 Cadet W. Rule „ 23 21 9 — 53 Cadet P. P.oc>r „ 24 14 9-1 4r Cadet W. Gray „ 16* 14 14—« Cadet W» We<kell „ 16 20 4 — 40