[TO TUB EDITOR OP THE "SP*TAT011.1 propos of Lord Roberts's
appeal for the encourage- ment of rifle-shooting, I cannot refrain from expressing delight and satisfaction that there is one soldier, at any rate, who can feel and interpret the need and desire of the country. If Lord Roberts succeeds in the difficult and arduous task of making the delightful and dutiful pleasure of rifle-shooting accessible to all, he will by that work have laid the nation and Empire • under a deeper debt to Mtn than even all his past services have done. A little personal explanation to show why I am convinced that Lord Roberts's "practical encouragement" is necessary may be' of interest. As a farmer's son I early learned to use a shot-gun, but had not seriously used a rifle until I joined the Volunteers in December, 1899. I found rifle-shooting to be a far finer and more interesting sport than rabbit- shooting, and was most enthusiastic on it. But after a short three years I, in common with many others known to me, resigned, chiefly because the facilities for shooting practice were so poor. This was not the fault of the officers, who had tried for years to improve them, but had been thwarted and blocked in every direction by the action of landowners. Since then two or three of us have kept up practice in a desultory kind of way with mid-range rifles of our own on a two hundred yards range ; but this locality has proved unsuitable, and this year we endeavoured to obtain a similar range further out. We succeeded; but on applying to the landlord for Iris formal permission, he vetoed the scheme at once without reasons given. Another private range near by has, I under- stand, been dropped for a similar reason,—its unsuitability, and the apparent impossibility of getting another one. Unless the Secretary for War can assist the nation to acquire ranges (as he has promised to do for the Volunteers), there is no hope of making shooting the national pastime. Again, our little experience is enough to convince us that no working men can hope to pay rent for a range, licenses for their rifles, and buy ammunition sufficient to make practice of any value • without assistance.—I am, Sir, &c., VILLAGE GREEN.
[Ill the circumstances described by our correspondent, we should recommend a hundred yards Morris-tube range. This will form an excellent school of musketry, and may be set up in almost. any large field not crossed by a footpath behind the target,.and at a total cost of some £10 or £12. It is not necessary for members of a rifle club to take out gun-licenses. Morris-tube ammunition should be cheapened to clubs by , Government action, but even now it is not prohibitive in price.—ED. Spectator.]
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