MARKING AT RIFLE ASSOCIATION'S MEETING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 231, 18 February 1913, Page 6

MARKING AT RIFLE ASSOCIATION'S MEETING.

To the Editor. S . —ll, is with some little amusement 1 I • I find my previous letter has touched a 'Tidiciilus mils,'' to wit, .Mr. Campbell Jackson, who with great Jaborings. with much repetition of my name, and with many inverted commas (my friend's method of regaining his literary wind, so to speak, and re-gathering his scattered ideas), now tells us it is the trench officer, and not the markers, whose sins of omission and commission were under review. I prefer to take the reports in your issues of the 7th and iOth as being the more reliable, and the wrongdoing therein alleged could, if done, be done only by markers. Mv error seemingly is that 1 am said to have received a j challenge, examined a target, and trans- ' mitted a report in two seconds, duly timed by my infallible friend with his equally infallible Waterlmry. What utter nonsense! Had I indeed done anything of the kind I should have at once been brought to a sense of rny misdoing by the range officer. If Mr.'Jackson's watch recorded a proper challenge made, a target examined and the report transmitted in two seconds, it must be j erratic and cranky, a matter easily re- ■ medied in watches. I am told, and 1 hav to depend en outside information—we in the trench know nothing. What occurred was this: A competitor fired; there was no response: he challenged, and whilst the range officer was in the act of transmitting the message the marker in question disced the hit and lowered the target. What else in the name of common sense could he do, and what more would any man of common sense require? The ringing of the telephone bell is a great stimulus to the attention of the markers, and if one finds a hit and marks it before the trench officer gets to Lis target, the challenge is not recorded against him and in his view he has "scored one*' oil the trench officer. I The incident frequently happens. In elegant diction I am told that I am "not the pnly pebble on the beach." As I never thought I was, the information is superfluous. For that matter, neither is Mr. Jackson, but if he claimed to be "the .roarer by the shore" everyone would freely admit his right to the title. In clpsing, I am pleased to find that we have j one thing in common—the good of the Association; and. with my friend, I wish it success, ever and ever increasing year by year. lam sorry ; the necessity has arisen for this correspondence,'a? 7 am conscious that it will do' the neotings no good, but though' I am deeply interested in the success of the

s Association, the good reputations of ] those who for the most part go.to_some I trouble to be able to put-their services I at its disposal for the meetings are even jof more interest to me. When they .are most unjustly and falsely accused J it is jny duty, knowing their \v.orlv- and ] the : unwarranted imputations made

against them, to defend them from such miserable attacks. Please- understand then, ,Mr. Jackson, or anyone/else, that it is jhands off" the markers,'. I am silent; —Apologising for again -troubling you,—rl am. etc., E. ARmITAGE.

■ THE "LADY'S To the Editor. Sir,™ Some long •tifci&.ijlgd'; •diii>in'g' a ; wild blizzard in a Hetllie of it*lit< > Alf)s, knowiji us the "OoT. P.orihbiiwle." a larv was b)ow» completely away-'iVhd •sfe'cft-iwi more.' A '"'ca irir' was raised <jt«» K'Pr'niVmoi:y, a/nd styled the ".Liidy's'iCainl 'irv t-l'ib Col. Ronltomme." The-MiHding* tiflj&mli such itone memorial oni'Wr/As l ; ne!t:t tte site aj possible where Miss Oxenham pet" ished among the splintered rocks of \ft. Egmont. on the afternoon' of -Siirril'ay, .Tanualry 20 last, might possibly ; *bo entertainer! as not too unfitting n mementa of thij* sad fatality.—l am,' etc.. ••. . C.W.W.!.'