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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3967, 19 November 1891, Page 2

An incident in connection with the formation of a Rifle Club in Master ton has just been brought under our not'ee which shows to what lengths the Government will go to gratify the wishes and desires of its friends. Some month's M° Major D. Donald wrote to the Defence requesting information regarding the .w*pnly of ammunition and rifles to a rifle duo, if formed, and received the following r eply :—" Private undertakings would be audited by supplying Snider rifles at 30s each and anjmunUwn at 83 per hundred rounds ; Martini-Henri n#es, at £<k Is each and ammunition at 8s 4d' per hundred/' On the strength ol this communication a rifle club was formed, with a membership of twentyfive, composed principally of residents who have no connection with fihe Rifle Volunteers. An application was niode to the Defence Department for the supply of ammunition and rifles, as promised, when, to the intense surprise of members of the Rifle Club, the following reply was received;— "No ammunition can be supplied as Government will not give any encouragement to rifle clubs formed where a volunteer corps exists, and as there is a yery good rifle corps in Masterton they will not in any w»f encouraee a rifle club being formed there.'' 'ffcer* is something very mu;h approaching the anomalous in the two communications from the Defence Department, and thje members of the Rifle Club may well he surprised. That there has been some bacfcgtair influence brought to bear on the Department must he apparent to all, and one need only read the report of last night's meeting of the Bifle Club to discover the wire puller. Still, while Ms Pownall rules the town and Mr Hogg the country, little surprises like this wil! occasionally happen.