Volunteer Items

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 139, 21 May 1892, Page 2

Volunteer Items

The match arranged between the Manchester and the Marton Royal Rifles will not be fired on the 24th instant. The Manchester Rifles paraded on Thursday night, Lieut. Kirton/ in command. There was a good muster. The new felt hats were served out ; members who were not present can obtain theirs on the Queen's Birthday. Captain Willis, who commands the Alberts in Wanganui, was in town yesterday, and he mentioned that his corps would probably send a challenge to the Manchester Rifles, which no doubt the latter will cheerfully accept. A meeting of the Shooting Committee of the Manchester Rifles is called for this evening at 8 o'clock, at Mr Bray's office. The New Commandant, Lieut. Col. Fox, has made a favourable impression already among the forces. The Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Herald wrote as follows concerning the Colonel's visit to Fort Gordon in company with the Defence Minister. There was a great stir among men in the fortress. One man was passing him at the double. At the salute he stopped the man and asked him where he was going to in such haste. "To the magazine, captain," was the reply. "What! with your shoes on?" Tommy Atkins was brought to attention in an instant. He looked at his shoes and then at the superior oflicer, but he had nothing to say why he shonld- or should not go to a magazine with his shoes on. Then said the commandant, " Yon must not do that any more. No man should enter a powder magazine with his shoes on." While inspecting the men, the sergeant in charge made some apology for defects, as a particular man under inspection was only a recruit. " Ah, " said the commandant dryly. "You have a good many of them here.