RIFLE CLUB MEMBERS FOR HOME DEFENCE
To The Editor Sir,—ln your report of the remarks I made at the annual meeting of the Invercargill Defence Rifle Club about the value of rifle club members for home defence, you made a palpable mistake of 900 yards in the distance I mentioned, which was 1000 yards. I did not realize then that my remarks would be sent to the northern papers in a Press Association message. But yesterday I received a letter from a member of a Dunedin rifle club in which he stated: “The local newspapers have published extracts from a speech in which you are reported as follows: ‘I am quite satisfied if we picked a squad from our two clubs here, any enemy coming within 100 yards would get a hot time . . Otago riflemen feel sure that the distance mentioned is a reporter’s error and liable to give the public a poor idea of our capabilities.” Apparently the two Dunedin papers made the same mistake as yourselves. It seems to me, sir, that these papers must think that the defence rifle clubs are armed with shot guns. The Press Association message must have been sent correctly, as Christchurch and Wellington papers have printed the remarks exactly as I made them. It may be of interest if I say that the high-powered rifles with which the defence rifle clubs are armed are sighted up to 2000 yards and their extreme range is well over 3000 yards. I do not know of any defence rifle club in the Dominion which does target practice at a closer distance than 300 yards, even in its military service practices, and competitions are held back to 900 yards where excellent scoring is very often recorded. —Yours, etc., A. R. WILLS, President, Invercargill Defence Rifle Club.
September 18, 1940. [We regret, the error in our own report. The Press Association message, for which we were not responsible, was apparently altered in transmission at Dunedin alone, for the other papers to which it was sent printed the figure of 1000 yards correctly.—Editor, The Southland Times.]
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Southland Times, Issue 24236, 20 September 1940, Page 3
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348RIFLE CLUB MEMBERS FOR HOME DEFENCE Southland Times, Issue 24236, 20 September 1940, Page 3
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