OPAKI RIFLE RANGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8524, 29 August 1907, Page 5

OPAKI RIFLE RANGE.

VIEWS OF A PROMINENT RIFLEMAN. The order of the Defence Department that the Opaki Rifle Range must be closed on account of the danger to people in the neighbourhood, has come as a surprise to the members of the Opaki Rifle Club and other shooting men in the district. It was xecognised that complaints had been made of the dangerous nature of the range and that the range would be ordered to be closed, but it understood that this order would be held in abeyance until after the meeting of the newly-formed North Wairarapa Handicap Rifle Association on September 21st. Speaking on the subject to a Wairarapa Age reported, Mr W. J. Henry, Secretary of the Opaki Rifle Club, and a prominent member of the North Wairarapa ( Handicap Rifle Association, stated that the Associa- , tion would make an effort to obtain: leave to hold the meeting on the Opaki Range on September 21st, as arrangements in connection therewith had advanced so far. The programmes had been printed and circulated, and all the rifle clubs in this , portion of the province ; had been a°ked to compete. The matter was being taken up enthusiastically, and a large amount of support was promised the meeting, which would be the inaugural one of the Association, and it was therefore obviously unfair that the Department should step in at. the present juncture and close the range. The meeting was expected tooccupy only a day, and as the range had been allowed to be used for so long, Mr Henry considered that satisfactory arrangements could be made to allow of the meeting being held. If the necessary permission to use the range could not be obtained, the Association would be reluctantly compelled to abandon the meeting, and this he considered would not only be a loss to shooting men generally but. to the town itself.

Referring to the range itself, Mr Henry considered that it was no more dangerous now than it was five years ago. He was of opinion that all. danger of bullets flying over thernound and hill could be obviated by trenching. If this were done all stray bullets would be buried in the mound, and consequently there would be no. danger to anyone. Asked how his club would fare this season for shooting, he said that other arrangements would certainly have to be made in connection with obtaining a new range, but there was a difficulty in securing a suitable one. Negotiations were in progress for the acquisition of a certain piece of ground, but theclub were not assured of a definite lease, and for that reason it was not: considered advisable to go to the expense of removing the targets and other fittings just yet.