THE GUN ON MOUNT VICTORIA

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 143, 17 June 1916, Page 4

THE GUN ON MOUNT VICTORIA

A SUGGESTION

A suggestion is made by a correspondent, A. A. Whitelaw, in a letter to The Post, that the old cannon on Mount Victoria should be brought down and placed near the Queen Victoria Statue in Cam-bridge-terrace, with a brass tablet attached setting out its past history. Thus placed it would prove- of far greater interest than where it is at present.

It is over ■ two years since the old' gun celebrated its centenary, it having been cast in the reign of the third George. Its only history (if it had any) is lost in the mists'of the past, and 110 record appears to have been kept of its early doings. For a long time the gun was used at Sort Brittomart,.Auckland, and was then presented to the city of Wellington. It remained in the corpora; tion yards here .until, public interest being aroused by an indignant letter in the press, purporting to be written by the gun itself, the council called for tenders to have it placed in the position itnow occupies. The lowest tender fcr this somewhat difficult job was £80, but this being considered too much, the D Battery of Artillery volunteered to take the gun to the top of Mount Victoria. Every morning and evening a number of the battery men assembled together, and hauled the heavy piece of ordnance, a Ettle further up the slope, until finally they reached the-top of the hilL This took place in the eariy seventies. For aixrat a. month the gun was regularly fired at noon as a'timegun, but the practice was discontinued. Several times after this the gun was fired, usually on New Year's Eve. by various mischievously -inclined young men, until finally its was spiked to prevent its unauthorised use. At the- present time the gun is standing near the summit of Mount Victoria, with its barrel half choked with dirt, and its iron mouth, which has remained silent for so long, pointing towards the wireless station. Our correspondent is" also of opinion that the gun which has been lying halfburied outside Messrs. Bethune and Hunter's premises in Old Customhouse - streets for many years _ should be likewise placed on the Cambridge-terrace niemo-