The Globe. THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1876.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 532, 2 March 1876, Page 2

The Globe. THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1876.

Anyone who takes an interest in the Volunteer force of Canterbury must be struck with the fact that in the competition now going on at Wanganui the Canterbury Volunteers make a very poor show. With the exception of Fox, whose name has appeared for a long time as a successful competitor in rifle matches, Canterbury has scarcely one Volunteer worthy to uphold the honour of the different corps in existence in this province. There appears to have been some hitch in the arrangements for the Colonial prizefiring this year. The Auckland Volunteers could not qualify, partly, they complain, from the inferior quality of the rifles supplied to them. Almost all the Canterbury Volunteers also appear to have failed to obtain the necessary number of points, in the

preliminary firing, but we do not hear I any complaints of the arms provided for them; and therefore we must conclude that they do not number amongst them men fit to compete with the representatives of the other provinces. But this surely cannot be the case. At any other trial of skill the province has always been able to find representatives that could uphold the honour of this part of New Zealand. At cricket, boating, football, running, or any other branch of athletic sports, Canterbury, if beaten, has not been disgraced, and the contests have been keen enough to satisfy the most exacting. Do our Volunteers despise the attractions of the Colonial prize firing, and therefore think the time and practice requisite to qualify as competitors wasted ? The interest attaching to the firing which is now going on does not seem to be very absorbing in this town, and it is rarely a subject of conversation amongst the Volunteers themselves. They are content to let things " slide." The list of prizes won by Canterbury men will be but a beggarly account, but the amour propre of the Canterbury Volunteers does not appear to suffer thereby. They are satisfied at the competitions which take place between themselves, and do not care to go further a-field in search of laurels. With the conveniences for practising, which are, at least, as great as those in most of the other provinces, and with the number of men who are members of the'various companies in the Volunteer force, it is not over creditable that we do not see the names of Canterbury representatives figuring more frequently amongst the successful competitors at the Colonial prize firing.