Numb. 70.
673

SUPPLEMENT
TO THE
NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

Published by Authority.

WELLINGTON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1873.

Colonial Defence Office, Wellington, 22nd July, 1873.
THE following Report and Returns, showing the result of the Prize Firing for 1873, are published for
general information.

DONALD MCLEAN.

REPORT on the COLONIAL FIRING at NELSON.

Auckland, 31st March, 1873.
SIR,— I have the honor to make the following report in connection with the Colonial Prize Firing
of 1873, at Nelson.

I arrived with the Northern Representatives at Nelson, per "Wellington," on the morning of the 1st
instant, and during the same day the Southern Representatives arrived per Phœbe. Certain represen-
tatives, however, from districts adjacent to Nelson, did not arrive until the 3rd instant.

The range, butts, targets, &c., having been judiciously prepared and arranged by Staff-Sergeant
Stevens at Stoke, on the property of Mr. Marsden, about three and a half or four miles from Nelson, I
was enabled to commence the official programme of the firing for 1873 at a few minutes before 9 o'clock on
the morning of the 4th instant-the date fixed by the Government. The firing was continued without
intermission daily from 9 a.m. till sunset, so that after seven and a half days the prescribed matches had
all been fired; after which two days were occupied in firing matches under a system of earth-coloured
targets and sights proposed by Mr. Soall, Sergeant-Instructor of Musketry, Auckland Rifle Brigade; and
if means of transport had been obtainable, the Representatives could have been despatched to their homes
on the 15th instant. However, on the night of the 17th, the Northern Representatives quitted Nelson per
"Wellington," and the Southern men on the following day per Rangatira.

The greatest goodwill and cordiality pervaded this meeting, and there were no complaints on any
subject whatever.

Only one protest was recorded, and that was against a Snider carbine used by Constable Gilpin, Armed
Constabulary, the foresight of which had been tampered with. An examination of the sight sustained the
protest, and the score made by the carbine was disqualified under clause 5, General Rules, Firing Regula-
tions, November 1872.

I was obliged to depart from the Regulations in one instance, where it is prescribed that in the Fifth
Cavalry Match the time should be five minutes. For a rapidity match with breech-loading weapons, five
minutes is too long, and the barrel and breech become dangerously hot. The Cavalry competitors were also
of the same opinion, so that I limited the duration of the firing in this match to three minutes.

Those competitors who were termed extra men were very much gratified by the concession made by
the Hon. Mr. McLean, in admitting as a charge against the public the cost of their conveyance to the range
and back to Nelson each day.

The whole of the competitors were also very thankful to the Hon. Mr. McLean for his having given
them £20 as prizes in Mr. Soall's matches; which matches afforded them so much real instruction that they
requested me to recommend to the Government that at the next meeting two matches at least under
Mr. Soall's system should be permitted, and embraced in the printed Regulations.