In

The gathering of spectators who journeyed to Bisley for the purpose of seeing the gold medal shot for, was one of the largest which ever assembled on the final day of the meeting. The weather was brilliantly fine. the early part of the day it looked decidedly unpromising. Almost up to the time when Bisley shooting ordinarily begins, heavy rain had fallen, and a thick haze still hung over the common, but finally the sun broke through, and the day turned out one of brilliant sunshine and oppressive heat. The rain and subsequent heat, however, produced a peculiar state of the atmosphere from the rifleman's point of

PHOTO. BY FOY, BRIGHTON.

five leading men leaving the 900 yards were Jones, Black, Priaulx, Boyd and Anderson. Three Scotsmen, one Channel Islander and one Welshman. Jones began in great style with three bull's-eyes in succession, and already the bystanders were spotting him as the winner. Most unfortunately, however, he missed his fourth shot, having been blown past the left. Then the spectators betook themselves to those targets at which other leading men were shooting.

Black had missed his tourth shot and Priaulx his third shot. After his miss, however, Priaulx made no more serious mistakes. He had still a shot or two to fire when some men had finished shooting. Armourer-Sergt. Fulton, the Queen s prizeman of 1882, finished with 332, and was then highest. Col. - Sergt. Shannon, 3rd Welsh, and Sergt. Cameron, 10th Lanark, who had pulled up splendidly, closed with 334 each. All the while Priaulx's comrades were intently watching him shooting, and when he registered the last bull's-eye, which made him 336, they burst into excited applause, imagining that he had won the gold medal. They were evidently unaware of what was going on right and left of the target at which Priaulx was firing. Even now Anderson had rounded off his score with three bull's-eyes, which brought up his aggregate exactly to the figures reached by Priaulx. Jones had now three shots still to fire and his total stood at 328. To his target, accordingly there was a great rush of spectators, who at once began to discuss Jones' chances in such eager tones that the police had repeatedly to suppress the conversation. To a man

view, and when some of the competitors went up to the long ranges in the morning to have a few practice shots. at pool, they found the elevation to be very different from what they had been using during the week. That was no doubt the chief reason why, when the final stage of the contest was actually entered upon at midday, so many of the hundred missed the target with their sighting shots. The wind on the other hand was pretty easy to gauge, because, while fairly strong from the right, it was steady.

With the shooting at 1000 yards, the real tug of war commenced.

The

who had scored an inner and two bull'seyes after his untoward miss, Jones task of scoring nine points with his three remaining rounds appeared very simple. First he had an inner, then, when his turn came, he did not have a bull's-eye, which would have made the gold medal his right away, but another inner. Accordingly if he hit the target at all with his last shot, the £250 cheque, and all the honour and glory which attend the Queen's prizeman were his.

The crowd behind the firing point was now so large that Jones must inevitably have known that

the issue depended upon his last shot. Long and carefully he aimed, but was unable to hold satisfactorily, and took his rifle

down. Again he aimed and again he rested. The excitement among the spectators was intense. As he hung on the shot the crowd watched him with breathless silence that was broken only by the chiming of the hour of five upon the camp clock nearly half a mile away. When at last he did fire, the target stood motionless in the shade of the sloped butt, and the exclamation "a miss" went in a whisper from mouth to mouth. After the lapse of a minute or so Jones decided to challenge. On the receipt of the telephoned message from the firing point, the target was lowered for examination, and again thousands of eyes were directed to the butt to note the decision. There was a long pause before the target was raised and then it came up quite clean. Jones had missed, surely enough, and had thrown away the best chance, perhaps, that a volunteer ever had of winning the greatest and most coveted rifleman's prize in the whole world.

With all despatch the three men who had reached the same figures at 336, were called together at another target in order that the tie might be shot off. Priaulx lay down on the right, Anderson in the centre, and Jones on the left, and fired in the order named. For their sighting shots Priaulx had a "bull," Anderson an inner and Jones

Anderson had an outer right, and everything, consequently, depended on Jones' final shot. To the dismay of everybody, his ill luck in the competition itself followed him in his tie shots, and he once more missed the target. Priaulx was warmly congratulated on his victory and in accordance with the usual custom, was "chaired" and, followed by a large crowd, was carried across the Common to the Jersey camp, where his health was cordially pledged. Afterwards he was taken to the umbrella tent where the prizes were presented, and the gold badge was pinned to his breast by the Duke of Cambridge.

Only once before has the Queen's prize been carried out of Great Britain, Sergt. Hayhurst, of Canada, having won it in 1895 after an exciting shootoff with Private Boyd, of the 3rd Lan

And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears."

Previous instances of the big prize having been lost in the last shot are recorded, notably that of Kelman, of Beauly in the shire of Inverness, who long ago would have won the blue ribbon but for the catastrophic fact that his last shot, an inner, was planted on the wrong target.

For the first time in its history the "Grand Aggregate" of the meeting was won by a Canadian, Surgeon Lieut. Bertram, of Dundas, in the Province of Ontario, carrying off the Gold Cross, the Dominion of Canada Challenge Trophy, valued at £250, and £20 in gold. The same brilliant shot also won the Volunteer aggregate,

which carries with it the magnificent Hop Bitters Trophy, valued at £1,000.

The National Rifle Association of Great Britain can take credit to itself to-day, for a great deal of the high standard of rifle shooting, which exists in the army and among the Volunteers of the British Empire.

During the second week of the meeting it was necessary to have three direct wires to Scotland, and on one occasion four wires were pressed with work in the telegraph department with Glasgow and Edinburgh. In the course of the meeting over a million words were signalled in press messages, and over 15,000 private telegrams were sent and received.

ΟΝ
ON Saturday, June 9th, came to an

end the fiercest and the strangest election campaign in the records of the Province of British Columbia. Unfortunately for the Province, the extraordinary condition, of which that election campaign was merely a fractional part, an incident, did not also come to an end. At the present writing there appears to be no end to it. Since 1898 British Columbia has been a seething cauldron of political unrest. Ministries have risen, played well or ill their part, and vanished into the limbo which yawns for the unfit and defective; men have come and men have gone, but the confusion has remained. But of all who have borne a part in the hurlyburly none has been so conspicuous as Joseph Martin. He, in short, has been the hero in the strife. It began when he entered the arena two and a half years ago, and his enemies say that it

will continue until he vanishes from the scene. In casting a retrospective glance over the history of those two years this is always the central figure; in all the vicissitudes of that time it is he who looms up large and masterful, the man

That 'mid the tide of all emergency " did, actively and strongly, and, as I believe, rightly in each crisis.

Two years ago the Turner Ministry was in power, but was being subjected to the severest press criticism ever levelled against any administration in this province.

The leaders of the Government were charged with sundry offences, amongst them being their improper participation in the affairs of certain Klondike mining and exploitation companies. In the midst of this bitter war of words Joseph Martin arrived from Manitoba and quietly settled down to