A correspondent in Tuesday's Times gives an interesting account of
the steps already taken in the Transvaal to encourage rifle-shooting as a national pursuit. Under the Volunteer Corps Ordinance of 1902 provision is made for the voluntary raising of Cadet corps, and the supplying at the expense of the State to all boys over the age of twelve of kit, carbines, rifles, and ammunition. Within a few weeks 300 cadets were enrolled, and now the strength is 33 officers and 1,245 of other ranks. Four battalions are in existence, and Boer boys have joined the corps in large numbers. The boys, as members of the Transvaal Rifle Association, go annually to the Transvaal Bisley, and there is a keen com- petition for the prizes for marksmanship. In Natal the training of boys to shoot is compulsory in all schools ; in New Zealand there is the keenest interest in Cadet corps ; and we are glad to see that the same spirit is shown in the Transvaal. The correspondent points out that because the State has done its duty in supplying the means, thousands of boys of both races, only three years after a great war, are prepared to join such corps, and that the Volunteers have in consequence a certain recruiting-ground for "young men who are already acquainted with discipline and drill, and possess the indispensable qualification of good marksmanship."
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