RIFLE SHOOTING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 243, 4 March 1913, Page 8

RIFLE SHOOTING.

TERRITORIALS IX THE BACKGROUND. GENERAL GODLEY EXPLAINS. By Telegraph—Press Association, i Christchurch, Last Night, To-night General Godley made a state- ] ment in reply to the criticism of the I Territorials and rifle-shooting, based on the attendance this year at Trentham. General Godley said: "I do not agree v'th Colonel Collins in thinking that the reason the entries at Trentham are. less than they were in the old volunteer days is because sufficient encouragement is not given to ride shooting. On the contrary, during the past year rifle clubs have been put on a better footing, have been assigned a more definite place in the defence force of the country, and their entries at 'Trentham have increased. The reason that comparatively few Territorials are competing at Trentham this year is the simple and obvious one, that practically the whole of the Territorial force are recruits, and it is not reasonable to expect that within one year of joining the force they can have reached a sufficiently high standard of musketry to enable them to compete in the centra! championship meeting, open to the whole Dominion. It would not be possible in a regular army, much less is it possible in a citizen army whose time and opportunities for military instruction are so limited. x\s a matter of fact the entries of Territorials at their district rifle meetings have been very satisfactory, and many of them cannot afford the time to go to both. In any case it is far more important from the point of view of general efficiency in rifle shooting in the Dominion that the Territorials should shoot at their local and district rifle meetings, where they can obtain more individual instruction and supervision from their officers and from the older members of rifle clubs and the old volunteers, than that they shoulud go to swell the numbers at Trentham. The Trentham meeting should be the championship meeting of the Dominion, to which only those who have proved themselves the best shots in their districts should go. Its motto should be quality, and not quantity. "As regards the remarks which have been made regarding the employment of Captain Wallingford, I am sorry to say they are only too true, not only of him, but also of Lieutenants Rose and Henderson and of Sergeant-Major Purdon. who all have the similar and the equal qualification of Captain Wallingford, of having been instructors in musketry at Hythe, and of being first-rate shots and musketery experts. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see these four experts all employed in purely musketry work, but we cannot make bricks without straw, and we cannot have appointments as experts in anything till we have more officers. We are so shorthanded that we have not even sufficient officers to perform the duties of area group officers and adjutants, and in most oases these two appointments have hitherto been duplicated and have entailed an amount of work on the officers concerned, of which the public have little idea. Without those appointments, the registration, posting, administration work, and the whole machinery of the scheme come to a standstill, and it is idle to talk of making expert appointments till the absolutely necessary ones are filled. As soon as we have sufficient officers. I hope to make use. of the services of all four of these musketry experts in purely musketry work. In the meantime, in their capacities as area officers an important part of their work is the musketry instruction and supervision of the cadets and rifle clubs in their areas, and much good musketry work has been done outside their immediate areas, and with Territorials, by Lieutenants Rose and Henderson during the last few years, and by Captain Wallingford and' Ser-geant-Major Purdon more recently. 1 trust the time may not be far distant when more officers will be forthcoming and it may then be possible to give their musketry energies much wider scope."