OPAKI RIFLE CLUB'S BUTTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8431, 1 May 1907, Page 5

OPAKI RIFLE CLUB'S BUTTS.

THE STRAY BULLETS ON THE GOLF LINKS.

THE CAUSE EXPLAINED. In connection with the paragraph which appeared in the Wairarapa Age, yesterday morning, stating, inter alia, that "the proximity of theOpaki Rifle Club's butts to the Lansdowne links is a source of danger to golfers when the members of the Rifle Club are practising," an Age reporter interviewed Mr W. J. Henry, secretary of the Opaki Rifle Club, and Mr G. Hyde, a prominent member of the same club, yesterday, and asked them if any steps were being taken to remedy the matter. Mr Henry stated that there was "nothing in the golfers' complaint." Ho explained that the hill behind the targets at the butts was frequently trenched, but as it had not been trenched for some' short time the ground had become hard and this might have caused an occasional bullet to glide off the ground, and over the hill to the golf links, or else a bullet might have struck a stone and acted similarly. The fact of the bullets going over to the links could not be put down to erratic shooting, said Mr Henry, as every shot fired in the 'match on Saturday struck the target. He added that the shooting season was now at an end, and golfers could continue their game in peace, until the beginning of next summer. Mr Hyde spoke similarly to Mr Henry as far as the danger of the situation was concerned. He went on to say that the Rifle Club would, in all probability, cut terraces in the hill behind the targets next year. If this were done the bullets would then strike a perpendicular surface instead of a sloping one, as at present, and there would be no danger of their going over the hill o:? to the golf links. Mr Hyde thought that the complaint of the golf players was more imaginary than real.