VOLUNTEER INTELLIGENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 4049, 17 February 1876, Page 2

VOLUNTEER INTELLIGENCE.

Reporting on his inspection of No. 1 Company City Guards Cadets'and Band,' Acting%Adjutant Pell says :-—The in&pectioft ; driH was gone through'very fairly.- The arms and, accoutrements'.' were in : good order. Sergeant'Harrison then put the company (whose appearance' on parade can hardly be spCken too highly of) through some batallion drill, When they proved themselves equal td their appearance, their marching and wheeling being particularly, worthy, of mention^,. ' The North Dunedin) Rifle .Company Were inspected last night. There were present: —one Captain, one sub-lieutenant, t four sergeants, and thirty-one privates.;' Of their inspection drill, the I Acting-Adjutant remarks that it was well performed, the men having a better knowledge of it than any company he had yet had the honor of inspecting. Drill-Inspector (Harrison put them through some battalion drill, also company drill, when they : behaved very steadily, and creditable to themselves. . The Auckland Volunteers having failed to' qualify.any representative for the Colonia Prize firing, now, with true. Auckland lmpudence, tnrpueh their organ the 'Star! accuse all the other Volunteers of the Colony of being liars and swindlers. This ik what the,' Star' says :—The failure of our marksmen to qualify the four nifen allowed the Province, under the conditions regulating the Colonial rifle tournament is attributable to causes altogether removed from the question of their ability to compete upon'equal terms 'with their compeers in thq South or at the Thames. The system of fixing a minimum number of points neoessary to qualify a representative has resulted in haliitaal swindling at the r preliminary , firings, which is demoralising to the men and destructive of anything like fair play. It is notorious that the scores rei '■•: corded in. connection with-.many of these preliminary firings, outside ofAucEcind (the ~ italics are our own), .were never legitimately made.. Xhe Government require that a cer- . .tain-y/mimmnm,' number of points Bhall by;'. 1 reached, and matters are arranged . . by' markers . accordingly,' ; so' 'that at any ; .rate., the,;, distinct shall qualify the full number of its* representatives and spare men* "We do not hesitateito Bay that no marksman in the Colony could undertake to make the mum twice running with the short Stridei rifle; to ask men, therefore,' to rest theii claim to fire in the Colonial competition upon their ability to make that number ol points is not only unfair, but It iB a direct inducement to the dodgery which actually takes place, and in which the Auckland men, who are kept under the strict eye' of Majoi Gordon, come out second, best.