THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3003, 30 September 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1878.

A meeting will' be held at the Bowen Hotel to-morrow night to consider the proposal, emanating from Wellington, for the establishment of a National Rifle Association in New Zealand. The officers of the various volunteer companies and committees of non-commissioned officers and men from each company will be present, and civilians taking an interest and wishing to co-operate are invited to attend. The idea to form a National Bifle Association is a very good one. Since the Government resolved upon doing away with the,annual colonial competition of the crack shots of the colony, there has beep recognised a want of a stimulus to rifle shooting—to that spirit of emulation which should exist between companies in a district, and between one district and another. The annual prize firing was no doubt a good institution, but making it an itinerant or peripatetic gathering was perhaps its most objectionable feature, in thatthe change every year involved the expenditure of a large sum of money that would have been advantageously disposed of in additional prize 3, or making the prizes given more valuable. The allocation of a few money prizes to each volunteer district was no equivalent for the Tir national that had been abolished. These prizes were of little more value than the ordinary district prizes gives in previous years in addition to the Colonial programme, and excited very little interest. The proposal, therefore, to form a National Association is one that should commend itself to all volunteers, and to citizens who are desirous of arriving at, or wish to encourage in others, efficiency with* the. rifle. The matter has been very warmly taken up in Southern- cities, and a promise has been obtained from the Government of a grant of £2000 a year. This, with the subscriptions from members, donations and trophies which may reasonably be expected to flow in on the establishment of the Association, will enable the Committee to offer prizes of a substantial character. The annual meetings'of the Association will become more interesting year by year, and a.t no very distant date they will no doubt be as attractive to colonists as is the Wimbledon meeting to volunteers of Great [Britain. The formation of branch societies and many other details we leave to be discussed by the promoters.