OPAKI RIFLE RANGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8523, 28 August 1907, Page 5

OPAKI RIFLE RANGE.

ORDERED TO BE CLOSED. REPORTED UNSAFE. J Frequent complaints have beei heard of late of the dangerous natur<

of the Opaki Rifle Range on accoun of its proximity to dwellings, anc representations have been made t( the Defence authorities in Wellington to that effect. The result is that the range has been ordered to be closed, as will be seen from the following telegram received yesterday by Captain McKiMop, of the Masterton Mounted Rifles, from Captain McDonald, Assistant Adjutant-Gen-eral, Wellington:— "Masterton. Rifle Range is to be closed immediately. On no account is any more shooting to take place on the range, which has been reported unsafe. Other arrangements must be made for the meeting on September 21st." Speaking on the subject to a Wairarapa Age reporter, Captain McKillop said the order was in a measure expected by him. Lately cornpaints had been made by persons living near the Range that the rifle bullets occasionally came over the hill at the back of the targets and were in a great measure dangerous to the lives of persons in the neighbourhood. When the range was first made there were no houses in the locality, but since that time settlement had grown rapidly, and now the locality is thickly populated. Generally the bullets did not go over the hill, but if one happened to strike a stone or some other hard substance the effect was to make the bullet fly off, and ajo over the mound and hill. Captain McKillop quoted an instance of the danger to the neighbourhood from stray bullets. A resident of Lansdowne, . some weeks ago, had Dccasion to get on the roof of his louse in search of a ball that his :hild had lost. There he found.a aullet firmly embedded in the iron on ;he roof. It will be remembered that some ;ime ago golf players complained :hat they could hear bullets whisting over their heads during the :ourse of their games. The meeting referred to in the tele-p-am is that of the newly-formed Slorth Handicap Rifle Association, which was fixed to take )laco on the Opaki Range on Sepember 23 st.