ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1227, 23 March 1880, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

' ■» Tm IfcUlN' op THE TUKF IN NEW ZEALAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAIL. I Sir, —" Kosmos" has written two letters to you in reference to the written by me upon his essay bearing $0 above title, but I fail to see ho\y. has, Ift any respect I have no inte.iiti'o.n'"of going again into the question at any length, as I am convinced that any remarks I might make will not carry any weight with a man so fully wrapped up in his individual self as " I accused "Kosmos" of putting assertions cid pf proof.""! still maintain "that t am right in this respect, unless, indeed, the assertions of so high an authority upon turf matters may be. taken as,proof sufficient. The arguments of hia may fairly bedesignated plever fyui; attempts to wriggle oi}t of a difficulty. |neea §cai'£ply fallow .. ]£osmos' all i\is "essays to answer my hig explanations amount to absolute confirmation of what I have written»

Take, for instance, his explanation of the manner in" which owners of horses aro able to make mooey by betting. Does it not prove exactly what I wrote, that owners of hones, to make money by betting, most know pretty well what is going to win f Does not this fact show clearly that the whole of the horses in a race cannot be ran upon their merits ? I do not claim to be an authority upon turf matters, bat I certainly know sufficient to convince me that there is great room for improvement upon the turf, and I think "■ Kosmos" would admit mc to be correct had he not assumed the r«>fe of a special pleader. lam accused of being too severe upon the ring. Possibly "Kosmos" might be right in the estimate he has formed of the bookmakers of this Colony; but I am not prepared to admit that he is, and still maintain that though there are a few honorable exceptions in the ring, the average bookmaker is more than an average blackleg. It is in defence of snch men as these that " Kosmos" has written his essay and the two letters that have appeared in your columns. —I am, &c., The Reviewer.

NEW ZEALAND RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

TO TTTE EDITOR OP TUB OAMAEC MAIt. StR r —Your contemporary the New Zealand Volunteer Service Gazette, in its last issue, contains an article reflecting in strong terms on the muddling exhibited at the recent Colonial prize-firing meeting at Nelson. Having been present, I may say that the Gazette's remarks as to the scoring are rather strong. A number of the scorers were captains of companies, and well qualified for the work, and the remainder, with a few exceptions, were the same men as were employed for that purpose the previous year. There were some cases of dissatisfaction, but they were comparatively few : certainly not sufficient to warrant, anyone in saying that, with the exception of Fasten, everyone else was incompetent. The signalling is certainly capable of being very much improved. An instance came under my notice in match No. 2, which demonstrated how completely the marksman is at the mercy of the marker. A competitor was in the act of firing a shot at a distance of 200 yards. He had been making excellent shooting, and feeling interested, I stood in rear of him, field-glas3 in hand, to watch the effect of the shot. I saw the shot strike on or about the bull's-eye, and, of coarse, expected to see the disc raised. After waiting for some time, the scorer remarked that, as there was no signal, the shot was a miss. On a dispute being raised, it appeared that the head of the disc had come off the handle, and the man was unable to show the effect of the shot. Now, had the competitor not been courageous enough to dispute the marking, nothing would have saved him from losing the three points. Where there is such a large number of competitors, a single point is often of very great value, and it is therefore absolutely necessary that the Council should procure the very best and most experienced markers to be found in the Colony. A few pounds spent in this way would be money well spent. While on this question, I may remark on the other hand that a good many competitors very often make the mistake of fancying, when they make a miss 3talong distance, that they heard the bullet strike the target. There are any number of disputes raised from this source, and almost invariably, after an examination of the target, it is found to be no hit. I accouut fortius by the fact that the ground being shingly, the report is caused by the bullet striding a stone. However, if good men ■were employed, and the competitors were confident that the marking wa3 perfection, a number of these disputeswould cease. Another cause of dissatisfaction which requires adjustment is the parade qualification in matches 3even and eight, viz., attendance at inspection parades ordered by the officer commanding the district I during the Volunteer year to count to•p wards total points ; nine (9) to be r the maximum. This i 3 a good enough qualification, provided it is strictly observed. But I know that it is not as strictly observed as intended by the council. _ These inspection parades take place once in each month, and as the Volunteer year begins in April, it i 3 only possible for a Volunteer to be present at eleven parades between April and the end of February, when the match comes off. One instance came undgr my notice of a "Volunteer who had been away from the Colony for seven months of the time, and yet handed in a certificate for seven parades. I alao noticed a captain writing out a full certificate for one of his men on the range, almost at the last moment, without the aid of his rollbook or any other book. By these instances I hold that the qualification appears, to be unreliable, and should be immediately abolished. At the late meeting a number of good men had their chances completely destroyed by being placed at a_ disadvantage in the order of firing, e-'j-, in match four there were three separate distances. Two targets were set apart for each distance, and the competitor, afcer completing his tiring at the first distance, immediately proceeded to the second distance,and then the third, getting through inaomethingless than an hour. Thoao fortunate enough to draw the first numbers got through with their ahaoting between the hours of G.oQ and 7.30 a.m., they having the advantage of a beautiful morning, and the marksman had no adverse influences to contend with. All that wa3 required was to hold the rifle to the bull's-eye. Those unfortunate enough to draw the last did not begin until about ons o'clock, by wkich tifue a high breese had sprung up. Thi3, accompanied by the glare of the sun, made it immeasurably more difficult for the jnarksman, as at every shot the ritle had to be aimed off the target. I think it would be advisable in future that no shooting should begin at the second distance until after all competitors have completed the shooting at the first distance. This would sb,ar?k the good and bad wpathar equally. * On thU O'jcaaion very little time was wasted during shooting hours. I noticed, however, that a very large number of the competitors had completed all their shooting on the Saturday previous to the distribution of prizes, which event did not take place until Wednesday. I 3 to those who were not »» rtf small bore <natghsa, the North v. South matches, the consolation match, and the cavalry tournament. The consequence waa that about three-fourths of the competitors at the meeting either left for their homes by tha first opportunity, leaving others to collect their prizes, or remained looking on, killing time. A bsai, given by the citizens of Nelson*, took place cn Thursday utghi, to which visiting memadmitted free, and the steamers s»ortli and South did not leave until Saturday. I hope that at next meeting the Council will devise some meari3 whereby the bulk of the competitors not be put to the loss of nearly a. vTSsk, or compelled to leave for thiir homes without having Cm opportunity of being s,fc the distribution of prizes or dhabmlL I would impress upon the Council the desirableness of adding to the programme a goodly number of money prizes for the highest aggregate scores in th«j 33eH Watches. At present therq are on'cy three pi these for riiie competitor.!, and as 98 was the number of men, the number of prfzes is not proportionate. In conclusion, I may state that these remarks are not made in any fault-finding spirit, but from a sincere desire for the welfare and improvement of the Associatian. A very disagreeable feature in the lat» meeting was the spectacle of Volunteers knocking about town in part uniform, for the moat part uniform trousers and plain clotluiig. 1 think the Council nugh

do worse than pass a small disqualification clause to put an end to _ this, ana respectfully call the attention of Commanding Officers to this subject for their guidance with regard to the forthcoming Christchurch review. lam, «kc., Loko Sjtedeb.