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HISTORY OF WORK POINT BARRACKSby Jack BatesPART 4 — 1907 to 19181911Daily Colonist SELECTION SITE FOR RIFLE RANGE Agitation Among Marksmen For Immediate Action With the approach of the rifle shooting season members of the Fifth Regiment Association are becoming impatient for some action regarding the proposed establishment of a new range. Enquiry yesterday elicited the information that up-to-date nothing concrete had been done, several sites having been inspected in a cursery fashion, but no decision being reached as to what recommendation should be sent forward to the federal authorities. Authority has been received from the Dominion Government to choose property suitable for the purpose designed and dispatch the bill to Ottawa for payment. This came through about seven months ago. Col. Currie, Major Wilson and Capt. Winsby were appointed to a committee to go into the matter. After some investigation they came to the conclusion that it would be unwise to make any selection because the Saanich peninsula was the only district in which the establishment would be practical and it wouldn’t do to take up acreage to find, afterwards, that it was some distance from the of the new Sidney extension of the B.C. Electric Railway Co. That it was necessary that the site should be within easy reach of the tram was the consensus of opinion, it being imperative that the riflemen of this city should be able to travel back and forward without great inconvenience. For this reason action was deferred. Now that the route of the new line is known in a general way the marksmen believe that time has come for action. They intend requesting the committee to get busy without further delay, so that Victoria may have a range large enough and sufficiently modern to permit, not only of holding of local competitions, but the conducting of the provincial shoots in turn with the Vancouver association. The Clover Point range has been pronounced impossibl by all those identified with the sport. They state that the heavy winds make it most unsatisfactory, that the difficulty of developing accuracy under such a handicap discourages beginners, making it hard to induce them to take up rifle shooting in earnest. Besides it is too small for the holding of provincial competitions. March 21, 1911 DRILL HALL PLANNED FOR FIFTH REGIMENT As a suggestion for the new drill hall which is to be erected facing Bay street at the corner of McBride street, the above scheme has been worked out by Mr. W. Ridgeway Wilson, architect, as expressing the views of the members of the Fifth Regiment, for which the building is to be put up. Should Mr. Wilson’s plans be accepted the armory will be equal in convenience to anything of its kind in Canada. It has been arranged that, by a small extra expenditure, accommodation could be provided for a second regiment, which many think may be authorized by the Dominion government in the near future. COLONIST THE NAVAL CHURCH AND ITS MEMORIALS This article is filled with information on the church and its memorials of the day. You will note that although the Signal Hill fortress had been built, guns had not been mounted or fired, only the future threat of firing existed, leading to relocation of the church in 1904. See also December 11, 1932 and November 2, 1952. December 7, 1911 Mountings For 9.2 Guns To Be Placed On Signal Hill The news that the two 9.2 guns which were brought here many years ago to be mounted on Signal Hill as part of the Esquimalt defences are to be place in position by the Royal Canadian Engineers of the local garrison by order of the department of militia and defence was received with much satisfaction by the officers of the local forces. Lieut. Col. A.W. Currie, commanding the Fifth Regiment, C.G.A., said: “I am sure that with myself the officers of the Fifth Regiment will welcome this news and that we will be pleased to do all in our power to carry out whatever work may fall to our lot in connection with manning this additional battery.”
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