C.A.C.'S HISTORY.
FOUNDED IN 1885.
THE RUSSIAN WAR SCARE,
AMMUNITION FOR TROOPS. The Russian Avar scare of ISBS was responsible for the formation of what is now known as the Colonial Ammunition Company, Limited. Volunteers were enrolled at a great rate throughout New Zealand, but when the time came to consider arming them it was found that there were only a few thousand cartridges in the country for the Snider rifle of the time. Because of the great demand for them in the Home markets, it became essential that the cartridges should be manufactured in New Zealand, and in ISSS, at the request of MajorGeneral Sir George Whitmore, Major John Whitney, who had held a commission in the North Lincolnshire Regiment before coming to New Zealand in ISB4, undertook to make Snider ball cartridges at Auckland. A condition of his agreeing to do this was that the Government should offer him sufficient inducement. After considering the matter the Government agreed to pay such price for the cartridges as would recoup the company for its heavy initial outlay. Within six months he and his sons had succeeded in beginning the delivery of the ammunition, in spite of the fact that he had to start with unsuitable material. But because of a defect, the 5000 cartridges which had been made were condemned by the military authorities. The pattern was altered, and so serviceable a type was produced that from 1885 to ISS7 about 2,000,000 rounds were supplied to the Government. Skilled Labour Engaged. Major Whitney then visited England to engage skilled labour and to purchase the latest machinery. His fame had spread by this time to Australia and he entered into an agreement with the Victorian Government to start manufacturing cartridges at Melbourne. The likelihood of further development in the industry caused the firm, then known as Whitney and Sons, to be converted in 1888 into a limited liability company under its present name. In 1893 Major. Whitney imported plant and machinery to make .45 Martini Henry cartridges at Auckland, part of the plant being sent from Melbourne, and part from .Woolwich Arsenal. In 1807 his company erected plant and machinery to make .303 Mark 11. cartridges at Auckland, and in May, 1905, another change to .303 Mark VI. was made. In November, 1917, .303 Mark VII., with pointed bullet, was started at Auckland. About 1903 Major Whitney invented the sharp pointed .303 bullet, some years before Woolwich began experiments in the same direction.
After the six Australian States were federated, Major Whitney arranged with the Commonwealth Prime Minister, Sir Edward Barton, that all the States would take their .303 ammunition from the Melbourne works at Footscray, and after a number of years of cordial cooperation with the Prime Minister and the officials of the Federal Government, he retired and took up his residence at "Wcnderholm," Waiwera, near Auckland. This home he sold on the death of Mrs. Whitney in 1917. In 1020, the Commonwealth Government leased the company's works at Footscray for a term of seven years, and at the end of that term the Federal Government purchased from the company the whole works, plant and machinery, including the metal refining and roller mills. In the same year Major Whitney came to an agreement with the company to allow him to purchase the company's New Zealand works and business, and a private company was formed at Auckland under the same name, to carry on the manufacture at Auckland of military and shotgun ammunition, shot, guns, crqwn seals and so on, his second son, Mr. Cecil Arthur Whitney, being managing director. The ammunition factories at Auckland and Melbourne are the only ones south of the Equator. No shotgun cartridges or sporting rifle ammunition has ever been made in Australia.
On several occasions the factories have saved the situation in Australia and New Zealand- —once at the time of the Russian scare, and once at the time of the Boer War in 1899, when the British Forces were supplied from England with the .303 with hollow point which the Boers claimed was against the rules of the Hague Convention. It has been stated that without the factory at Auckland in 1899, few, if any troops would have gone to Africa, and without the factories at Auckland and Melbourne in 1914, few troops, if any, could have gone to Egypt, Anzac, Gallipoli, and later to the front in Franc© and Belgium.
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1936, Page 10
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737C.A.C.'S HISTORY. Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 134, 8 June 1936, Page 10
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