SHOOTING OF COAST ARTILLERY. 
187 
If a man found after being a little time in the forces, that be was 
not likely to become so very good a shot as to be able to compete suc¬ 
cessfully in rifle matches and so on, he became as a rule, very indiffer¬ 
ent to shooting, and merely fired away the government allowance of 
ammunition at the ranges, in order to gain the pay allowed for the 
time spent in this musketry practice. This pay was, under the 
regulations then in force, allowed to be drawn whether any score was 
made or standard reached to or not, so there really was no incentive 
under the circumstances for a man to take any trouble in the matter. 
The regulations on this point were soon altered; and it was pointed 
out that what was really most essential with any military force, was 
that all should be able to shoot fairly well, say up to such a standard 
for example, that no one would miss a haystack at 500 yards. 
If in addition to this there were a number of excellent shots, so 
much the better, but the great desideratum was that all should 
come up to a certain standard, say the “haystack 33 standard. This 
was not at all a palatable doctrine to begin with, and there was con¬ 
siderable difficulty in enforcing the conviction of its truth. It was 
evidently necessary to give some strong incentive in the direction 
required, and the idea occurred to me that it might be given by a 
mode of prize giving which would spur on each company to have 
as many men as possible who came up at least to the “ haystack 31 
standard, while also not losing sight of the advisability of having 
further, as many very good shots as possible. 
The mode adopted was as follows :—I presented a large silver shield, 
to be held for a year by the best shooting company of the forces, and 
induced the government to allow the free issue to this winning com¬ 
pany of a distinctive badge, to be worn for a year by every member 
of it; gold badges for the officers, silver for the N.C.CTs, and worsted 
for the men. The title of the winning company to be also inscribed 
on the shield. 
That company held the shield and wore the badges for a year, which 
gained the highest “ figure of merit 33 in the annual musketry course. 
The manner in which it was arrived at was as follows:— 
(1) . In order to encourage a company to have as large a per¬ 
centage as possible of its strength, fairly good shots ; the percentage 
of its numerical strength, which shot up to a certain fixed standard, the 
“ haystack ” one or higher, was taken as one factor towards the figure. 
(2) . And to encourage it also to have as many very good shots 
as posssible; a second factor was laid down, viz. the average score 
made bythe officers and men composing the percentage of the company 
shooting up to the fixed standard. 
Thus taking a company, say 100 strong, of which eighty five per 
cent shot up to the standard, and in which the average score of these 
eighty five was sixty per cent of the maximum score which could be 
made, the “figure of merit 33 of this company would be 85 multiplied 
by 60 i.e. 51. 
