MOUNT VICTORIA TIME-GUN

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 64, 17 March 1933, Page 6

MOUNT VICTORIA TIME-GUN

A correspondent, M. Hyland, writes in reference to the incidents connected with the mounting of the time-gun on Mount victoria. ''The gun," he writes', "was taken up by volunteers under Captain Shannon, who worked in the evenings and Saturday afternoons. It took some time to get it to the top, as it had to be taken up a zig-zag track which had to be made; the old track can still be seen. Sergeant John Robinson, of the D Battery, was in charge of the gun. He was appointed by the D Battery to fire the gun every Saturday at noon. He" continued to'do so for- some time. I remember the residents of Wellington set their clocks by the report of the gun, and children used to watch to see the smoke issue from the muzzle, then hear the report, and call to their mothers to set the clocks. The time to fire the gun was taken from a time ball that was hoisted above the old Post Office or Customs* building. I am not sure just now which of the two. This time ball used to act before, the gun. was mounted, and continued after the gun ceased to fire. Sergeant Robinson had a very frying time. On many occasions on arriving at the Mount he would have to spend some time clearing stones out of the gun which were thrown in the muzzle by children and larrikins. The last, time the sergeant visited the Mount to fire the gun he found two or three large boulders wedged in it. He could not shift them. I remember him telling Sergeant Gus. Kuchen the reason the gun was not fired that day. He said: 'Those darned larrikins have been up to their tricks again. I am full up.' The gun has not been fired since."

[A photograph of the old gun being taken through the city to Mount Victoria is published among today's illustrations.]