THE NELSON AND WELLINGTON ARTILLERY COMPETITION. MAJOR PITT'S DECISION.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 112, 14 May 1881, Page 2

THE NELSON AND WELLINGTON ARTILLERY COMPETITION. MAJOR PITT'S DECISION.

Major Pitt, officer in command of the Nelson Volunteers, has at last forwarded to Lieut. M'Credie, of the Wellington Artillery, his decision in connection with the ordnance competition between the Nelson and Wellington Artillery Corps at the Easter Encampment. Major Pitt remarks at the outset that he had had a doubt as to whether he ought not to disqualify both competing detachments for departing from the duties laid down for each member, and because in dismounting the limber both detachments failed to complete their work, by grounding the several parts of the limber after they were detaohed. He, howeverj resolved not to disqualify the detaohments, but to decide in favor of the H Battery, on the ground of " their superior ealerity " Major Pitt goes on to give his reasons for the decision. He says that the objection of the officer commanding tne D Battery (Wellington) that " the gun of the Nelson detachment was loaded and fired before the limber had reversed," certainly Bhowed that there was great celerity on the part of the Nelson men, inasmuch as blank cartridge was actually fired ; and that if No. 1 of H Battery performed a portion of the duties of Nos. 3 and 5, any objection on that score is met on the part of the Nelson detachment by the alleged fact that No. 1 of the Wellingtan detachment assisted No. 2 in preparing and firing the friction tubes. Major Pitt asserts that he himself saw this, but he does not state why he made no mention of it at the time. The decision is certainly a most peculiar One, as Major Pitt admits that the Nelson men took an unjustifiable advantage to show their "celerity." He also acts upon the assumption that the alleged wrong-doing of one of the Wellington men counterbalanced the admitted wrong-doing of one of the NelEon contingent. Lieutenant M'Credie, who has kindly forwarded us Major Pitt's memo, also sends a few remarks of his own in reference to the decision. He says only ona conclusion can be arrived at from the admission of Major Pitt that tho Nelson gun was fired before the limber was reversed, viz., that the time gained on the D Battery (10 seconds) would have been lost twice over if the loading had been performed in a proper manner, and as laid down by the manual of artillery exercise. He asserts that No. 3 of the H. Battery had a cartridge ready at the gun before the gun was even unlimbered, and therefore gained time which could not have been gained by a proper performance of duty.