HAULING GUNS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 26, 1 February 1926, Page 7

HAULING GUNS

TRACTORS FROM AMERICA

DEFENCE DEPARTMENT'S

DEPARTURE.

Although tho world has not yet reached tho stage when nations may safely beat their swords into ploughshares and learn the art of war no more, the old-fashioned methods of conducting wars are undergoing rapid changes, and tho business of disposing of a country's foes is more thaii ever becoming a matter of mechanics. Officers,-sword in- hand, charging at tho head of their m&n into the ranks of the enemy are not seen now except in paintings, or in the imagination of military-minded youth, and soon the sight of batteries of horse artillery galloping into action will also be a fit subject for pictures only, as the horse is now giving way to thd motor-tractor. The British Army both at Home and in India has been equipping batteries with tractors for the haulage of guns, particularly the heavier-calibre weapons, and, actuated by a desire to be up-to-date in such matters, the New Zealand Defence Department has purchased two tractors with which experiments are at present being made. They are 5-tou. Holt machines, and were manufactured in the United States of America. These two American tractors last week hauled a couple of 60-pr. guns from Wellington to Foxton, where the 19th Battery is in camp, and where they will be tested out thoroughly. If the experiments are regarded as satisfactory, it is likely that farther tractorß will be bought for supply to artillery units.