NEW ZEALAND RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 62, 12 March 1880, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

We have compiled from tbe official record kindly placed at our disposal by Capt. Webb, the Secretary, the following alphabetical list of winners at the late meeting, together with the number and amounts of money-prizes placed to their credit. The total amount paid in prizes, exclusive of Belts. Medals, and Cups, was -SI OO3. PRIZE LIST.

Mr Kenny, R.M., of Hawke's Bay ig in a quandary. He has to decide a case entirely without precedent in the annals of New Zealand civil law. The Herald relates : — Mr Bridee, of Onga Onga, recently engaged a married couple " without encumbrance." Shortly after their arrival, suspicions were entertained that the uon-encunibranee clause was about to be violated, but the woman stoutly denied the soft impeachment until one morning — well, one morning at 2 o'clock, the doctor had to be sent for, and the " encumbrance " was un fait accompli. Mr Bridge naturally refused to pay the woman one month's wages, and also deducted the amount of the doctor's bill. The husband and wife sued for the money at the Waipawa Court, and Mr Kenny has taken a week to consider how his decision shall be given. The following Napier telegram appears in the Post :— A meeting of unemployed, was called for Saturday night, but proved a great fiasco — about fifty men, two-thirds of them laborers, rolled up. The convener of the meeting unexpectedly asserted that there was plenty of work, and then said there was none, and concluded by returning to his first statement and offering to get work for any who said they could not find it. He told an extraoidinary tale of how Vincent Pyke lived on snakes for a week in Victoria when on the wallaby. The next speaker strongly denounced the no-employment cry, saying that every man able and willing to work could get constant employment. Bennett, the convener of the rneeting,t said he must \ dispute this, and mounted the barrel which did duty for a platform, but someone pushed the barrel from under him, and he fell heavily to the ground, where he lay stunned for some time. On recovering he offered to fight anyone in a 36 feet ring for love or money. This concluded the proceedings. West Coast nomenclature is curious, as the following paragraph from the Grey River Argus of the Bth March will show :— " The new pack track from No Town to Mud Gully, in the Candlelight district, has just been let in two sections, No. 1 being from Comet Terrace, co named after our local astrono-

mer, who first spotted the illustrious headless visitor, at a price of £92 ; and No. 2 (section, from a point in Abe's Gully to the end of the track, at a price of £133 10s." Did the local astronomer receive £92 ; and, if bo, who paid him ? Inferring to Mr Dick's apppointment,^the Lyttelton Times says ;— "The new Minister makes the second ex Superintendent in the Ministry of Major Atkinson, who abolished all Superintendents. The revenge at time in this case is that the Superintendents banished from provincial office have achieved the colonial positions for the furtherance of may therefore be accepted as an earnest of the their local aims which is the offence for which they suffer. That Mr Dick is a man of integrity is his best qualification for Ministerial office. His long career as a Superintendent is a guarantee that he knows enough of the detail of administration to discharge the routiue duties of the Colonial Secretaryship. In ability, he has not improved the pkrsonel of the Ministry — rather the reverse, for he is sot»e>vhat impracticable. As a debater he never will stand high. His real value to the Ministry is in the shape of cement. His appointment sets the Otago element, and bis want of definite ideas on most subjects fails to disturb any of the outer elements of the Ministerial party. The Ministry has made a safe selection, and the colony gains an honorable Minister." Recent Auckland telegrams stated that a Mormon elder had been very nearly successful in seducing the wife of a fisherman in that town into accompanying him to Utah, and there has, as may be easily conceived, been a pretty row about it. The Star ironically advised its readers "Don't put the Mormon elders under the pump," wherenpon an old salt wrote :— " Dear Sik,— Yon ask us not to put our Mormon brethren under the pump. What are we to do ? Perhaps the poor fellows might catch a cold. Do you think, Mr Editor, that when the next wifestealer honors us with a visit, if a horsewhip was properly applied (say four dozen) it would cause him to change his mind and leave this city ? I think that our wives are ' not safe whilst the Mormons are in our midst. How do we know when we come home from a voyage that our wives and families hare not sloped with a Mormon prophet P The Saints ought to leave our fair city alone, or you may depend upon it they will find plenty able and willing to either dip them in the pond or use a horsewhip, which they do richly deserve. I warmly sympathise with the poor fellow — the last victim— and if he wished to punish that saint he would have found plenty of help on the wharf yesterday to do so — at least a dozen. Give us timely warning, Mr Editor, when the next good saint arrives.— l remain, &c, A Mariner." The Maori mind (says the N.Z. Times) appears to be deeply stirred by the advance of the surveyors and the Constabulary across Stoney River — the Rubicon of the West Coast. Confidence in Te Whiti is being rapidly sapped, and his ability to perform all that he has promised is openly questioned. Intelligence to this effect reached us yesterday, and also that one chieftain of note was heard to re.nark that he had doubts as to whether Te Whiti was not deceiving his followers, and also whether he was really capable of causing the return of the confiscated land to the tribes, and that if he did not soon • disclose his power to act the natives would leave him and go to the Government. This statement we know to be authentic, and it desirable turn native affairs are taking under the quiet sensible regime of the new Native Minister.

On the night of the 13th of December a logging camp on Yakimi river, Washington Territory, caved in on a party of men, crushing them to the ground and severely injuring several. John Allison, one of the party, was crushed beneath the weight of a heavy wall log into a large open fire. It became necessary to saw the log off in order to extricate him. Whilst this was being done he lay upon hot coals, and was literally roasted nlive. Mrs M'Kie, of Moat, one of the two last survivors in Dumfries of those who witnessed the funeral of the poet Burns, died recently, Aged 92. Strange to say, within 24 hours of Mrs M'Kie's death the other Dnmfries survivor who witnessed Burns' funeral also died. This was Mr William Gordon, of Ironbank, formerly the leading legal practitioner in the town. He was 96 years old, and latterly had been bedridden. W. Mitchell, the rising Sheffield billiard player, has made another sensational break. On January 6 he played an exhibition game

with J. Bennett at the New Circus, Sheffield, and in its description of the play, the Sportsman sajs : — Every available seat in the place was occupied, while the promenade was crowded to excess. When the Sheffielder and his companion made their appearance, they received quite an ovation, although few indeed ever expected to witness such an exhibition of grand spot play as was shown by Mitchell. In his first notable contribution he holed the red no fewer that thirty six times, and after following this up with forty five spots, he subsequently eclipsed all his previaus public performances by running out in an hour and thirty-eight minutes with an unfinished break of 679. Starting at 322, he quickly pocketed the white, and gaining a position" for spot practice at 329, laid himself fairly down to his work, and never ceased holing the red until the marker called " game." Bennett had only arrived at 360, but although defeated by such a large majority, be compiled beautifully executed breaks of 114 and 93.

iViiiner. jS"O. of Prizes; I'otal Amount. Armstrong i» i „. 1 Adams, P. 8. ... 3 ... 3 Acheson ... 4 ... 23 Appleby ... 1 ... 2 Bannister ... 1 ... I Bradley ... l ... 2 Black, A. ... 1 ... 3 Beach ... I ... 3 Best, J. ... i ... i Bennett, A. ... 1 ... 7 Buckley ... 3 ... 20 Ballinger, W. ... 1 ... 2 Burr... ... 2 ... 14 Badger ... 1 ... 3 Ballinger, A. ... 2 ... II Ballinger, J. ... 1 ... 4 Cochrane ... 1 ... 2 Coventry ... l ... 1 Christie ... 2 ... 5 Cutnmins ... 4 ... 10 Crossnian ... 2 ... 2 Coleman ... 1 ... 1 Clarke ... 1 ... 7 Currie ... 1 - ... 2 Doidge, J. ... 3 ... 6 Downie ... 2 ... 14 Dalziel ... 2 ... 9 Davy ... l ... 6 Dixon, A. ... 1 ... 1 Dixon, H. ... 2 ... 4 Ellis, Capt. ... 3 ... 10 Fowler ... 1 ... 5 Fox ,„ ... i ... i Fairß ... 2 ... 2 Fenton ... 4 ... 21 France, C. ... 4 ... 9 France, J. ... 1 ... 3 Frearson ... 1 ... 3 Griffiths ... 4 ... 5 Gordon ... 4 ... 16 Gell ... 1 ... l Haslett, J. ... 2 ... 5 Henderson ... 1 ... 4 Hooker, S. ... 1 ... 1 Hutchinson ... 1 ... 2 Hay ... 1 ... 2 Howell ... 1 ... i Howie ... 1 ... 1 Haycock ... 1 ... 5 Hood, D. ... 1 ... 2 Hooker, R. ... 2 ... 2 Hood ... 4 ... 10 Hale ... 1 ..." 5 Harding ... 5 ... 8 Hunter ... 4 ... 9 Hoskins ... 1 ... 1 Hill ... 3 ... 10 Janiieson ... 2 ... 5 Kitching ... 2 .. 2 Keller ... 2 ... 8 King ... 2 ... 4 Laird ... 3 ... 19 M'Kcnzie, W.... 1 ... 2 Mair ... \ ... 2 M'Credie ... 1 ... 8 Mogridge ... 1 "... 1 M'Rae, R. ... 1 ..,1 Musßen ... 1 ... 8 M'Keo ... 2 ... 2 Morrison, R. ... .2 ... 6 Moore, J. ... 1 ... 3 Morris, T. ... 3 ... 17 Milne ... 1 .... 8 M'Kenzie, A. ... 4 ... 12 Moore, C. ... 1 ... 1 Moore, M. ... 2 ... 5 M'lntosh, J. ... 2 ... 5 Monk, A. ... 1 ... G Okey ... 6 ... 53 Parslow ... 4 ... 8 Paynter ... 8 ... 35 Purnell ... 8 ... 48 Prowse ... 1 ... 6 Price, J. ... 1 ... 6 Price, G. ... 2 ... 3 Rowlings ... 1 ... 1 Rogers ... 7 ... -27 Robinson ... 1 ... 2 Richardson ... 4 ... 13 Ross, J. ... 1 ... 3 Rose ... 1 ... 1 Ross, A. ... 2 ... 3 Strange ... 1 ... 1 Smith, E. ... 2 ... 16 Skinner ... 3 ... 9 Somerville ... 7 ... 36 Shone ... 1 ••• 4 Strachan ... 1 ... 2 Soper, R. ... 1 ... 7 Sinclair ... 1 ... 5 Thomas ... 7 ... 39 Taylor ... 2 ... 9 Turner, J. ... 4 ... 10 Thomas, J. ... 1 ... 2 Thurston, D. ... 1 ... 2 Thurston, J. ... 2 ... 12 Weir ... 1 ... 2 Webster ... 3 ... 8 Woolley ... 3 ... 18 Wimsett, T. ... 2 ... 9 Wilson ... 2 ... 12