THE EMPIRE DAY RIFLE MATCH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9081, 4 May 1908, Page 5

THE EMPIRE DAY RIFLE MATCH.

- WHAT IS AN ASSOCIATION 9 AN IMPORTANT INTERPRETATION. The Opaki Rifle Club, which has entered for the London "Daily Mail's" Empire Day Match communicated with the proprietors a short while back to get a ruling on the question of what constituted an "Association." In reply they received on Saturday a copy of the "Daily Mail" of March Bth containing the following : "An important point is raised by the secretaries of several rifle clubs. They ask what is the exact definition of'association.' In many parts Of the Empire rifle clubs call themselves 'associations,' while in reality they are self-contained clubs. This has led to some little confusion as regards entries for the Over-Seas 'Daily Mail' Rifle Competition. In the rules of the competition, a copy of which has been sent to every club that has signified its intention of taking part, will be found the following:— "Team: Eight highest scores on day of the match to count as team. Any number of men from one unit may shoot.

"The competition to be confined to one team from any Militia, Volunteer. Police, or Civilian Rifle Association or Club in the British Empire (or British Rifle Club or Association in foreign countries). "As far as the Over-Seas 'Daily Mail' Empire Day Rifle Competition is concerned, the word 'association' must be taken to mean a separate unit, or, in other words, a self-con-tained club. That is to say—where a rifle club is a part of an 'association,' that club must enter its team entirely on its own account. "For this reason, we must bar associations proper from entering this competition. The clubs composing the association are, of coursr, eligible, but the association as a whole is not. Associations may not, therefore, as some secretaries understand, enter one representative t?am selected from the affiliated club?. Each club must enter separately. This intimation cancels all others, and must be taken as absolutely final." The paper also states that up to that issue 217 cluos had entered for the competition.