VOLUNTEER NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 196, 22 September 1900, Page 4

VOLUNTEER NOTES.

(Dmedin Star.) THE SEhVICE ItIFI,E, „ The annual shooting contests at Bisley this year have been shorn" of ft good deal of ttuir interest by reason, of J the* absence of so many of our crack 1 shots in places -inhere the targe's are t mainly invisible, and when seta are not of ;the black or white Variety. Yt-t Bisley has taught us onfe lesson, and ' tha.t is to beware of the man who uses statistics to prove that the British service rifle is*a weapon inferior in all re- ; ■p cts to the arms used'ifa other countries. Not long ago there was.a god deall written aud a good deal more talked about the alleged,.inferiority of our service rifle. We are told, with much use of statistics,""tbat'i)ie LeeMeetford and Lee-Eufield were bad weapons, at least when compar d. with the Mauser, the Mannlicher, the Leesti aight-pull, and so on ; and it was prophesied that we should fce awakened further to a sense of the shortcomings of our own rifle when comparison could be made of the respective m> rits of the Leo-Metford and the Mannliohi r at Bisley. That comparison we are now able to make through an account of the regular and volunteer officers, in which a choice of rifles were allowed. There were six officers in each team. Of the winning team, * wo shot with the Lee-Metford, ono with the Lee-Enfield, and ilneo uith Uio Maunlichor. Of the lofjip if a iu, one t-lsot with tho Lee3iii fieiil, tfii;' \yith the Mannlicher, and f>»ie with the Swiss rifle. Seven good shots, ttiweforo, but of a total of 12 pinned flitir faith to the Mannlicher bb f'jO be f. ri!lo lint what did he result if-liow ? Tlie highest score—2o2 out of a possible 225—was made by the LeeMetfoid, while only two of the seven Mannlichers used made higher scores than the lowest made by the service rifle. The three highe.-t scores of the service rifle amounted to 590 po'nts out of a possible 675 ; the three high s> scores of the Mannlicher amounted to 574, and that, it must be remembered' happened when there were only four service rifles being used, as against seven Mannlichers. There would be nothing illogical, therefore, in drawing the inference that, given six equally good shots, three using the service rifle, and three the Mannlicher the service rifle would win, or else that the best shots prefer the servica rifle. Whichever ,a the correct conclusion, neither would be unsatisfactory,