THE BISLEY MEETING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2147, 1 August 1907, Page 1

THE BISLEY MEETING.

•WONDERFUL SUCCESS OF THE AUSTRALIANS. THE KING’S PRIZE COMES TO THE ANTIPODES.

(Bv “Trigger,” in tJie Canterbury Tillies.) - „ , , Every marksman of New Aua'aml •via congratulate Uueiiteuant Addison of South Australia, u).<>n b.s success in winning the Kings l’»* ** tl.(» Bisley meeting; and eveij New Zealand volunteer and rifle clubman •vili extend further congratulations to the other Australians who have done so well, individually and collectively. Never before lias a colonial combination scored such a remarkable success. The tie in .the Ktdapore Cup match entitles Australit to rank equal with the Mother Cruntry for the title of team champion of the British Empire, and in wii ning the King’s Prize the individual shooting championship or the Empire is secured for Australia. But tliio is not all, for Rifleman Cutler, in winning the Prince of- \\ ales s Prize, gained the second highest individual honor in the service matches Then Itiftomen Motton and Sliaw. each of Quensland, were first and second ill the Stock Exchange Competition, with the remarkable ■.cores of 103 and 102 out of a I>oSdlile IQS. Shaw also won the All•iiiiicrs’ Aggregate, scoring K>9 points Wt of 175. Ardill, .of New South Wales, won the Barlow Match, and there is little doubt a great number ,f minor prizes have been gained by >.lie Australian jnarksmen. In the King’s Prize, Prince of Wales s Match and the All-comers’ Aggregate, the successful Australians .gained l-heii positions only after tiring till ■with other marksmen who had tied with them. It is .remarkable, too, that the Kola pore Cup contest resulted in a tie between the Australian team ami that of the Mother Country. Tho marksmen which Australia sent to England this year were mostly young men, _ although they have been famed in shooting arena for some years. Shaw and Motton have represented Australia at Bisley before, and Howett, of South Australia, has, I think, also competed at Bisley. The Australians will return to their country proud men, and they will, no doubt, be honored as they so thoroughly do--301 ve. But they have some hard work before them shortly to uphold Australia’s prestige with the rifle, for in October next the Mother Country’s team will meet teams from Australasia at Sydney, where the greatest rifle meeting ever held in the colonies will take place. New Zealand will require her best marksmen to make a good show in that great shooting contest.

Onco more tho visit of a British squadron to American waters has boor, attended by a large number of desertions (says a writer in the “St. James’ Budget”). AVliilo the First Cruiser Squadron was in Hampton Roads, the Argyll lost three men, tho Good Hope thirty-two, the Hampshire thirty-seven, and the Roxburgh eighteen—ninety men in all from a squadron of four ships I It is not to be pretended that all these men were “bad hats,” of Whom the navy is well quit. It is a fact which everybody knows, but of which few care to talk, that it is consistent with American ideas of “playing the game” to offer heavy inducements to tho trained men of foreign Powers to desert their flag. The same thing is experienced in British naval stations which happen to be on the route of the Americans to tho Philippines. The thing is regularly - organised, with agents appointed to seduce the men from their allegiance with drink and promises. If the American authorities will not . cease to wink at this breach of neighbourliness, it will bo necessary for the Admiralty to decline all invitations to American ports by way of administering a mild lesson in tho virtue of playing fair. It is high time that public attention was called to the matter. AVo do not provide an expensive training in order that the American navy may profit by it, however much we hope and desire that that navy may bo found in alliance with our' own, if tho occasion should arise.