80 OKEHAMPTON, 1895. 
at least four guns.” Think of a Battery Commander now leaving half 
his guns in camp when he went out to practice !_In 1890 it is directed 
that no mistakes are to be purposely made for the “ sake of illustration ” 
and somewhat humourously gives the reasons “as error in judgment 
is sure to produce some, if not all, of these faults during practice.” 
In 1892 at Okehampton, and next year universally, a great change was 
madein the nature of the elementary practice. Thethree effective shrapnel 
system having done its work at service practice is relegated to elemen- 
tary ; times are to be taken; and generally the elementary is to be- 
come a real preparation for service practice. With this change in its 
nature soon came a reduction in the number of rounds allotted to it. 
The 180 rounds of 1892 has dwindled twenty rounds a year until 
this year only 100 rounds were allowed. The question naturally 
occurs—is further reduction advisable? As long ago as 1892 
Colonel—now General—Ward in his Gurgaon report said that he 
“considered the amount allotted to elementary excessive, and that 
fifty rounds should be sufficient to put a finish to the education of the 
drill-ground,” and this year General Tyler proposes reducing it to 
twenty-five ; while General Murray thinks that only the recruits rounds 
should be allowed for it. That is getting perilously near extinction. 
Already I think some officers are asking whether elementary really 
does any good and whether men do not get into bad habits at it. On 
the other hand it does seem hard to take a battery straight to service 
practice. Probably we are all agreed that this year’s allowance of 100 
rounds may safely be reduced, but the question is “ how far?’ The 
last Brigade Division at Okehampton this year being on a lower scale 
were only allowed sixty rounds, and they certainly did not appear to 
be at any disadvantage when they came to service practice. 
Batrery SERVICE Practice. — 
In Battery Service Practice the first point to notice is that in 
1888 only four rounds were allowed for finding the elevation, 
showing at once how little the difficulties of the task were under- 
stood. Then the use of an observing party seems to have been 
obligatory for we have as the sequence of events (1) the advance; (2) 
range-finding and (3) establishment of observing party. Apparently 
the opening fire was to be delayed till all this was done, and no doubt 
necessarily, for the observing parties were sent as much as 1000 yards 
to a flank whence they signalled every round. Next year the glaring 
absurdity of such procedure is noticed, and we find that observers are 
to be trained to observe from a flank of the battery though observing 
parties are still used when possible. The great point of the year’s 
practice was, however, the introduction of the “three effective shrapnel”’ 
system. I cannot imagine anything better adapted for the purpose of 
driving into everybody’s head that hitting was not a simple matter of 
course. The system then was more rigid than now, for it was laid 
down that “no battery will wnder any circwmstances be permitted to 
change to another target until the desired effect has been obtained, 
however great may be the nwmber of rounds which may be required to 
obtain that result.” When a battery fired away round after round at 
