COLONIAL PRIZE-FIRING.

Tuapeka Times, Volume IV, Issue 221, 25 April 1872, Page 5

COLONIAL PRIZE-FIRING.

(From tine, Evening Star.)

Christchuroh, April 8. When Monday morning — big with the fate of the Championship— dawned, there was every prospect of an unpleasant day. The sky was overcast and threatening, and before the hour of assembly the rain came down very heavily. But there was seen an encouraging break in the clouds, so the men determined to proceed to the range, and leave the rest to the fates. Their wish that the day would turn out fine was amply gratified. On reaching the range, the ground was found to be in good order ; the heavy clouds had passed away, old Sol shone out in all his splendor, while the slight breeze which blew from the S.W. made it very pleasant for shooting. The two matches that had to be fired were the running and rapidity ; and they were, as usual, very interesting, because they would decide the Championship, for which some dozen men had an excellent chance. The faith of Otago was in Wales, who was leading by five points, and for whom there was not the slightest fear, as we knew his strength lay in the rapidity match, with which, and the running he secured the Championship last year. Auckland pinned its hopes on Hoskins, who was considered very dangerou*, but his friends could not be prevailed upon to back him ; while Humphreys, of Taranaki, was not wanting in admirers. Then Muir and Cowie were not forgotten ; while a few knowing ones from the South ventured the belief that Taylor was sure " to come in at the death " — an anticipation which was fully realised. Some excellent shooting was nude, notably the score of 62 by Taylor. The whole of the men had fired before Wales appeared. The champion presumptive, if I may be allowed to use the word, had, owing to urgent business, necessitated by his partner's illness, been permitted to go to town before the match had been begun. Notwithstanding the shaking to his nerves occasioned by a seven miles ride, his natural anxiousness, and above all the knowledge that he had the excellent score of 62 to beat, Wales coolly took his place on the ground and commenced his work, surrounded by an excited crowd, who could not smether their feelings, although calculated to put out the man firing. Your readers have all learnt by telegraph of his splendid score of 65. Now the man who can make a score like that under such circumstances is a shot. As the scores show the second prize fell to Otago, and the third ought to have done so also, but a mistake led to Cowie and Duncan, of Wellington, agreeing to divide the stakes, the latter taking the honor of third place The mistake was this, Cowi°. had 36 centres aud 6 outers, or 16 hits, but the officer commanding his squad, in the hurry of marking, only allowed him 15 hits. His score, therefore, in this match should have been 6]. The error is admitted; but the pity is that it was not discovered before, for it might have had a material effect on the last match. As it is, Cowie only loses the fifth aggregate prize by one point. The running match was the deciding event. In the first squad was Captain Wales. At the conclusion of the firing, his target showed ten hits ; but one which he claimed as a centre double shot was disallowed by the unanimous vote of the staff. As one of the spectators who watched Wales's movements very narrowly, I can affirm that he fired twelve shots, ten shots of which were on the target, and two misses. The question naturally arises where did the ether shot go to ? When the extreme target on the right, which belonged to Carter, came to be examined, it was found that it bore the extraordinary number of thirteen hits. Now it was impossible, on many grounds, that he could have made that score. The large number of spectators who w.ere in the immediate neighborhood of the firing point, unanimously affirmed that Wales was the first to start the running, and that he continued and increased his lead at every round. Each man who was firing was " shepherded " this wise. At the firing point and the stake which denoted the distance to be run, was stationed a Southern man — in this case, Buchanan was at lhe firing point, and Reid at the stake. Wales was the fir«t to protest against Carter's score, and at the conclusion of the firing, Mnir lodged a formal one ; which was duly considered. Buchanan who appears to have been intent on watching Wales's movements instead of Carter's, was only able to state that the latter fired thirteen shots, but could give no information as to the manner in which they were fired. Keid, on the other hand, distinctly affirmed that Carter only ran four times round the distance point, so that he could only properly have fired ten shots. Thus, then, one of two conclusions had to be arrived at— either that he had fired three shots instead of two between each run, or that some other competitor had fired on to his target. The last theory was completely overthrown by Muir, who was the next man, accounting for every shot. The staff, however, upheld that view, because they held that in the abscencc of sufficient proof of Carter having fired more than the stipulated number of shots between each run, it must be assumed that some one bad fired in mistake on to his target, and therefore, in accordance with the rule which had prevailed during the meeting, allowed the shots. There was no help for it ; but the decision gave rise to considerable dissatisfaction. There is little doubt—indeed Colonel Harington made the admission — that Carter could not have fired more than ten shots ; and to a curious and inexplicable circumstance, to use the mildest phrase, he is indebted to taking the second highest aggregate and the first prize in the match. Fortunately the matter did not affect the championship. The Press, in view of the state of things, suggested that Carter might honorably agree to fire the match over again — a feeling that appeared to be largely shared in, and what Wales offered to do at the time, but the suggestion met with no response. Moore, Taylor, Todd, and Wilson tied for eighth prize, which, in firing off, fell to Taylor. Wales having won the belt two years in succession, is entitled to its absolute possession. His performances with the rifle during those two years entitle him to be considered the best Enfield shot in the colonies, if not in the world. It may be interesting to give the winners of the belt during the years it has been competed for. In 1861, it was won by Ensign Brighton, Auckland rifles ; in 1862, by VoL Sam. Holt, Nelson rifles ; in 1863, by volunteer Nath. Morse, Nelson rifles; in 1864, by Lieut. W. T. Owen, Wanganui cavalry, who was tied bp Ensign Humphreys (a competitor this year) ; in 1866, by Colour-Sergeant D. L. Christie, East Taieri ; in 1867, by Corporal John Chisholm, West Taieri ; in 1868, by ColourSergeant William Taylor, Scottish ; in 1869' by Lieut. W. U oldie, Port Chalmers Naval ; in IS7O, owing to the disturbances in the North, there- was no competition for the belt ; in 1871 and 2, by Captain Wales. , The matches on Wednesday were the marksmen's and ladies' prizes. In the first the' shooting at the 800 yards was very indifferent. For the ladies' prizes, Bassett of Wellington and Marshall of Otago tied with five bull's eyes each at 150 yards, with an eight inch bull's eye, which was a capital performance. In shooting off, Bassett scored another bull's eye to Marshall's outer, thus winning Mrs , Gargill's prize—a bandiome ittver tea wrvipe, Part-

ington of Auckland being the highest aggregate scorer at 150 and 550 yards, he making 27, took the first ladies' prize of a tea service. Carter of Wellington, Wilson and Lean of Otago tied for the second prize with 26 each, but in firing off the prize went to Wellington.

Christchurch, April 17.

The whole of Thursday was devoted to the All-Comers Match, particulars of which I sent you by telegram. The shooting in the first stage is remarkable for the splendid shooting of Sergeant Cowie with an Enfield, when competing against small bores of every description ; and at the long ranges for the shooting of Mr M'Kerrell, one of the Scotch eight at Wimbledon two years ago. The shooting over, the attention of the representatives was devoted to the various festivities, which were got up in their honor. The Chris tchurch cavalry led off by entertaining the cavalry from the North Island ; and the next evening the local artillery entertained, in like manner, the representatives at the firing of the other artillery corps. On Thursday evening, the great ball given by Christchurch to the representa ives came off. The fine drill-shed, which next to Auckland's is the largest in the Colony, was floored for the occasion, and when lighted up at night with its tasteful decorations and company of nearly 600 persons, including every branch of the volunteer force, and the fairest portion of the fair sex of the city of the plains, whose dresses fairly outdid those of the volunteers in brilliancy, its appearance was alone worth travelling three hundred miles to see. The Lyltelton Times describes the appearance of the hall as follows :— The walls and i oof wei c completly hidden in a mass of richly variegated color, produced by the suspension of some seven or eight hundred flags. The military characteristics of the assembly were aho retained by the display of swords, bayonets, and rifles, arrang*,d in ornamental order at various points around the building, and by two guns of the Christchurch battery of artillery profusely decorated with a tasteful arrangement of forest vegetation, and flowers 1 being placed in position at the north end. Festoons of evergreens interspersed with roses, suspended around the walls, formed a very agreeable contrast with the drapery, | added to which there was also a large display of hot plants. The decorations were done by volunteers from the Christchurch corps, and principally under the direction of Mr A. Isaacs. The music was averagely fair ; the company, as I said before, excellent ; and the ball would have been a thorough success but for one trifling circumstance. It appeared to be a general opinion that the strangers were not so well looked after as they might have been. Certainly it was no uncommon thing to see a dozen representatives congregated in some corner, perfectly lost among so many strange faces — or admirable " wallflowers." as an elderly gentleman observed. Perhaps ib was remissness on the part of the stewards, only a few of whom did their duty ; but the fact is, many of the strangers might as well have stayed away. The next evening was devoted to the dinner, given by the representatives to Major Wilson, CB. It was also held in the drill-shed, and about 100 gentlemen sat down to it. The principal representative men of Christchurch were present at it — his Honor Judge Gresson, the resident Minister, the Hon. Col. Brett, the Mayor of Christ huch, &c. The chair was occupied by Colonel Harington, and this circumstance has given rise to some unfriendly criticism. There is a not inconsiderable number of representatives who think that seeing it was a dinner from themselves, one of their number should have presided, and that Captain M'Farland. as the senior officer at the meeting, should have occupied the chair. But as I am informed the staff contributed their share of the expense, I don't altogether see that the comp'aint ia well-founded. The speeches were only fair. It was rather amusing to hear the Hon. Colonel Brett, who, it will be remembered, in his place in the Legislative Council last year gave the Volunteers such a dressing, sound their praises so highly as he did. Then Colonel Harington availed himself of the opportunity, in proposing the health of the cavalry champion, of declaring that he had not purposely slighted that branch of the service— which assertion was as promptly contradicted by Sergeant-Major Lockett, of the Wanganui Cavalry, who responded to the toast. Major Wilson and Colonel Packe appeared to be very sore on the subject of the Daily Times correspondent's remarks upon the range, and made explanations fully supporting what I wrote on the same subject. 1 he Colonel made the additional remark that the Times 1 correspondent had informed him privately that his observations werj founded on hearsay ; that actual inspection of the ground had led him to another conclusion, and the company seemed to be satisfied with the amende honorable. Major Wilson, in the course of his speech, promised to give a prize at the next inter-colonial competition, the conditions to be fixed by a committee of the representatives. The other speeches call for no remark. On Saturday, in spite of a heavy rain and stiff sou- wester, the volunteers paiaded to witness the presentation of prizes. Had the weather been fine, it was intended to have had a battalion parade. The presentation took place in the drill-shed, Mrs Eolleston presiding. Everything passed off well, A feature of the day's proceedings was a presentation which was made by the Otago representatives to Mr F. Stevens, who officiated as secretary to Colonel Haungton. The presentation took place at Coker's Hotel, after the men had been paid their detention allowance, and was made by Captain M'Farland, in the absence of Captain Wales. It took the form of a very handsome silver spirit stand, the bottles being of colored 'glass, ornamented with gold, and was given by our men as a small token of their appreciation of Mr Stevens courtsey and urbanity. The compliment thus paid to Mr Stevens is a well deserved one. Colonel Harrington again got into hot water over this aflair, interfering in a manner, which to say the least of it, was the reverse of gentlemanly. On Tuesday morning the southern representatives sailed by the Maori, and the northern men were to have left the following morning by the Wellington. With the exception of the small matters referred to in my several letters, the meeting just over has been a very successful one. But when the accounts come to be audited, the Government will doubtless stare with astonishment at the heavy cost ; for the length to which the meeting has been spun out has had the effect of increasing expenses to a wonderful extent. Would it be believed Colonel Cargill and his adjutant offered to get it through in four days. Yet such is the fact. Perhaps next year the Government will see the . advisability of ordering those who take part in these competitions to go into encampment, which will be the means of saving money, and at the same time giving the men a useful lesson in camp life. I shall refer more minutely to this and kindred subjects on another occasion.