Volunteer Notes.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2086, 17 March 1898, Page 2

Volunteer Notes.

The annual meeting of the N.Z. Rifle Association was-opened on Monday at Onmaru. One matter which" caused a deal of interest was how the colonial ammunition would turn out. That of December, 1897, manufacture was used, and at the 200 yards range of the Nelson Match, where the men had to kneel, there was not much grumbling, though several of the competitors admitted it was not of a class to be used in a competition of this character. The chief cause of complaint was that, the cartridges missfire. However, as the men retired to the longer ranges there were continued complaints of irregularity of ammunition, and at the conclusion of the match the Council met to consider the advisability of continuing with the New Zealand manufactured ammunition, and it was unanimously decided to discard it, and use that of Victorian manufacture in the belt matches. In the Nelson Match—Gun. Winslade, Thames, £6, with a score of 92, and Sergt. Grundy, Thames, 41, in the Ladies’ - Match, are the only two local men whose names we observe among the prize-winners.

Mr J. H. AUehiu, Maidstone, writes to Knowledge that at Cranbrook, in Kent, there is a rifle range which is used by the-local Volunteer for rifle practice, and at a distance of about six feet behind the targets there has been built a large stack of faggots which serves to stop the spent bullets. This year a pair of nightingales selected the stack as the site for their nest, which they built in the interior, and almost in a direct line with the centre of one of the targets, which are constructed of eanvas, and allow the bullets to pass throughly directly into the faggots. In that situation the birds hatched their eggs, and reared their young, literally in the midst of a storm of bullets. The wood of the faggots was splintered in all directions, but only one young bird was killed.