GUNS AT REDOUBT

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLII, Issue 6093, 27 March 1914, Page 3

GUNS AT REDOUBT

(;iFT FUO.M DEFENCE DE-

i'AK'LWIENr

INTKIIKsTINC! LKTTEII FKOM

CUL. WAIU.)

| At the last meeting of the Tau- | ranga Horough Council a memorandum was read trom Hon. d. Allen, Minister ot* Defence, to Hoi. W. 11 herries. regarding guv eafringes at the Hedoubr. Mr Alien stated that the guns wore gifted to the Borough ft Triuranga by die Defence Department iv duly. IAAA .As th e guns, carriages. .and limb.is were, handed over eumple'c, .the were written oil' charge to the Defence Department and immediately became the property <>i tjie Loiough Council and that body is therefore rcspmi-O.lc for th.c care and preservation of them. The -Minister said he re ;.■••! leu there are no carriages availao... fo replace the olel ones Colonel Waul forwarded tie", following letter re old guns in Redoubt : "As promised 1 have pleasure in sup-j (.dying following information re the above. The .Monmouth Redoubt was finally handed over to the Rorough Council as a reserve for public purposes about the end of 18U8, iv November of which year I was

elected Mayor. We set to work at once to clear up and restore the redoubt to something like its original condition during the war. In the autumn of IS 1)9, Lord Uanfurly, then (Governor, paid us au otlicial visit, and was accompanied by Col. PolePenton, Commandant of the Ss Z Eorces. Packed up by some of the Councillors, notably the late Mr John Maxwell, I made an appeal to the governor, to have" four of the field guns then stored in Wellington and become obsolete, but which had done good service here in the Maori war, presented to the Council, to be placed in the Uedoubt, and in this matter His Excellency was graciously pleased to assist us as desired The guns were duly returned here after an absence of about -0 years, the U.S.S Co carrying them for £5 instead of tl I —the proper freight. The other two much older guns, cast* muzzle loaders, are old ships' guns, one, the smaller, having been formerly the property of the late Capt. A. C. Turner, and the larger, of the late Mr A W. Burrows, aud both were presented to the Council to add interest to the Redoubt. Their history V. do not

know and do not think their former owners knew it either. The smaller is evidently a British naval gun, as it bears the cypher of II.M. (Jeorge 111, and was cast in the year of Waterloo, IS 15. The other may possibly have come from an early whaleship or merchantman or the Danish man-o"-war wrecked in a great storm oft Maketu somewhere about the end of the eighteenth or beginning of the nineteenth ceutury, the original Hans Tapsell, of that place, being, I believe, the only survivor. The carriage upon which it now rests is, of course, utterly inappropriate to the gun." The Mayor said the letter from Colonel Ward was exceedingly interesting, and it should be iiled for future reference, lie moved—That the letters be referred to the Endowment Committee to report upon. — Seconded by Cr Brown and carried Cr Castaing proposed—That Colonel Ward be thanked for his letter. — Seconded by the Mayor and carried unanimously.