An obscure paramilitary group and a rifle club share a community hall in Tauranga. It's not a happy arrangement. Tony Wall investigates allegations of assault, “mooning” and spying.

When members of the Tauranga Target Rifle Club turned up to their shooting range one night in May last year, they were shocked to find the locks had been changed and they couldn’t get in.

Since the 1950s, the club had operated side-by-side with the Legion of Frontiersmen at the legion’s hall in Elizabeth St, central Tauranga, on Tauranga City Council reserve land. The shooting range adjoins the hall and is accessed through the hall’s foyer.

For decades, the legion had a perpetually renewable lease with the council, and the rifle club considered itself the sub-lessee.

But since the legion was taken over by new management in 2020, the groups had been at loggerheads over rent payments and now, the rifle club found itself locked out.

The squabbling continues well over a year later, with hearings before the Disputes Tribunal, complaints to police and claims of threats and intimidation.

Earlier this year there was a physical altercation at the hall, resulting in a private prosecution for assault which is still winding its way through the Tauranga District Court.

Val Baker leads Legion of Frontiersmen in marching practice.Photo: Supplied.

Calls to the main players reveal the depth of feelings involved.

“I’ve got more than enough evidence to tell them they’re a pack of bloody bulls....... bastards,” says Val Baker of Katikati, who goes by the title Lieutenant Colonel and is the legion’s “Commandant”.

Rifle club president Alan Dickson fires back: “She’s out to discredit, she’s out to harass, belittle and distort. She’s not credible.”

The legion’s full name is the Legion of Frontiersmen of the Commonwealth Countess Mountbatten’s Own (J Squadron) Incorporated.

The frontiersmen were a civilian group formed in Britain in 1905, with branches throughout the Empire to prepare for war and maintain vigilance in peacetime. A New Zealand branch was set up around 1911.

Members fought in World War One and when they got older, served in the Home Guard during World War Two.

These days, the few members left – mostly descendants of former members – are likely to be seen in their lemon squeezer hats and neat, black uniforms doing marching practice, laying wreaths on Anzac Day or helping at community events.

When Val’s J Troop, based in Katikati, took over the running of the Tauranga hall – one of only a couple of legion halls left in the country, she says – the rifle club was asked to contribute more to rising rent and rates.

The club had been paying $800 a year for use of the shooting range, hall, toilets, and car park for one night a week, six months a year.

For the 2020 year, the legion increased the rent to $1291. Alan says they hadn’t had a chance to levy members for the extra money, so agreed to meet the legion half way, paying $1050.

Alan says the legion wanted the club to pay a share of its outgoings such as rates, insurance and land rent, which it had never done before.

“They want an open cheque book,” he says. “Usually sub-tenants don’t pay outgoings.”

Tauranga Target Rifle Club president Alan Dickson, left, with a club member. Photo: Supplied.

The club agreed to pay a portion of rates from 2021 to May, 2022 on a without prejudice basis (legal term to describe communications for settling a dispute, but which cannot be used in court), pending negotiations for a formal sublease.

But then the shooters arrived at the hall one night and found they’d been locked out and served with a termination of their sub-lease.

Val says the club thought it had the “God-given right” to use the facilities without paying its fair share.

“They weren’t willing to pay for what they were using. It all comes down to money. They don’t want to pay... Because they think... It’s a privilege to have them there – it’s not a privilege, they're a f...... parasite, that’s what they are.

“We can’t afford to... Have somebody sucking on us, on our funds.”

The rifle club went to the Disputes Tribunal, seeking a declaration that it had an “equitable perpetual sub-lease” and couldn’t just be turfed out.

The legion counter-claimed, seeking a declaration that it was in fact a month-by-month lease and it was owed $8000 in unpaid rent and outgoings.

For about 12 weeks the rifle club was locked out, forced to shoot at a range in Te Puke, until interim orders by the tribunal allowed them back in.

The tribunal later found that the rifle club was a sub-lessee and the termination notice was invalid. It dismissed the legion’s monetary claims, except for an order for the rifle club to pay $141.

There was an uneasy truce and the shooters completed their 2022 season.

But Alan says there was another surprise when members turned up for the start of the 2023 season in May and found the legion had leased the hall and foyer to another group called the School of Historical Arts, which practises Mediaeval sword fighting.

The rifle club was locked out of the toilets and hall, and had to share the foyer – which they use to set up their equipment – with this new group.

Youths practice at the Tauranga Target Rifle Club range. Photo: Supplied.

“They... did their best to occupy every inch of floor space with their gear,” says Alan.

Owen Brighurst, of the sword school, says rifle club members have been “hostile and intimidating towards our members” and they haven’t felt safe. He claims his partner, who uses a wheelchair, was “aggressively shouted at and stood over” during one incident.

One night in May, a sword fighter asked Alan to move a rifle case that was on the floor of the foyer, he refused and an argument ensued.

Val, who says she’d been present on rifle club nights to ensure there was no conflict between the groups, approached Alan and another rifle club member also walked up.

The details of what happened are disputed, but Val claims she was hit over the head three times with a rolled up shooting mat.

She took CCTV footage of the incident to Tauranga police station and made a statement the next day at the Katikati police station.

In the end, police decided not to lay charges.

In a statement to Stuff, police confirmed they'd investigated but found “it did not meet the prosecutorial guidelines”.

Val is furious about this. She says Tauranga police even suggested she could be charged with fighting in a public place and have her firearms licence revoked.

“I’m a f...... victim here and they were going to charge me.”

Unwilling to let it go, she employed private investigator Clinton Bowerman, who served a rifle club member (not Alan) with a summons to appear in court charged with assault. The member has engaged a lawyer and the case has been adjourned twice.

Alan considers Val’s presence on club nights a “deliberate provocation. She’s got this idea that somehow we’re going to attack these other tenants”.

“She shouldn’t be there – a basic tenet of any lease is quiet enjoyment. Traditionally, no member of the legion was present ... on shooting nights.”

He says club members were “harassed” throughout the entire 2023 season by a parking enforcement company that ticketed their cars when they had every right to use the parks.

The Legion of Frontiersmen hall in Tauranga. The rifle range is to the right. Photo: Supplied.

The legion has since walled off the foyer to separate the rifle club from other tenants.

Because they can’t access the toilets, members have been getting changed in the foyer.

Val has described this as “stripping”. She says one woman has twice been in her underwear in full view of everyone.

“There’s a bloody red light near the building and here’s this woman mooning traffic.”

Alan says there was nothing untoward – the woman had asked Val for permission to change in the toilets, she refused, so she changed into her shooting gear in the foyer.

Val: “They don't pay me anything to rent my facilities, so why the f...... hell should I have to give them my toilets?”

Meanwhile, rifle club members are uncomfortable that the legion has set up security cameras and microphones in the foyer and outside the building, and can listen in to their conversations. This is a breach of privacy and illegal, Alan claims.

Val says they have the right to install the equipment because it’s their hall. She claims the microphones picked up a rifle club member talking about shooting her.

Stuff understands a complaint was made to police but other than the club being advised to abide by the legion’s rules, no action was taken.

Alan says the comments were made outside, it was a windy day, and the words are distorted.

“I’ve seen that piece of tape and I don’t think those were the words said at all.”

Val claims the rifle range is not up to safety standards and bullets could penetrate the walls. The legion wrote to the Firearms Safety Authority objecting to the club having its shooting range certificate renewed.

Alan says that’s spurious – providing Stuff with a new certificate issued at the end of November.

“It’s passed every inspection. That’s just a wild allegation.”

He says the legion will try anything to get rid of the rifle club from the facility.

Val, on the other hand, claims the club wants rid of the legion.

“Everyone says it’s a personality clash, it’s not. I don’t like anybody who believes they are so entitled they can try and ... take a person’s hall. They want our hall.”

Tony Wall/Stuff