THE PARK GANNON.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 16 January 1913, Page 6

THE PARK GANNON.

AN INTEREST!^

Mainly through the eft'oi^ oi: Mr G. Eastern, the cannon wnicn had been in tiie iieci eation bround oi King Edward Park, as was stated iu V\ euuesciay's issue, iias now been mounted at the entrance of tne tennis ground. Mr A. Trimble, Clerk of the Court at-.Napier, and who tor many j years took an interest in the old volunteers when he was a resident of Hawera, has forwarded an interesting account) of the gun to Mr i±. .brunette, in which he says: "I have looked up iny letter book, and find that the history of tho gun so far as Hawera is "concerned is as follows: On October 31, 1885, I wrote to Lieut.-Colonel Stapp", who then commanded the Tarauam military district, suggesting that one of the old cast-iron smooth bore guns then in New Zealand might be sent to Hawera and mounted there for drill purposes. I had had a thorough training in England in the drill and other matters relating to this class of/ ordnance, and was prepared to give the necessary instruction. After some correspondence, the gun now at ""ruiwera was sent from Auckland. There appears to have been some difficulty about getting a carriage for it, but eventually a standing garrison carriage was made from my working drawings, the trucks being cast at Wanganui. Other necessary stores were supplied, and some of the men were instructed in gun drill. The gun is a 32-pounder cast-iron smooth bore gun of 25c\vt, and belongs to the lightest class oi 32-pounders made. It could be used with solid shot, case shot, and grape shot only, and was not designed for shell fire. The service charge of powder was four pounds. How the gun came to be in New Zealand I do not know, but fancy that it was left for the defence of Auckland by one of Her Majesty's ships. I have heard of, guns being left at other places under similar circumstances. My letters to Colonel Stapp are interesting as showing my own ideas with regard to the defence of the colony at the time they were written," but it would take too long to make copies of them just now, and the present generation of local military men might not appreciate them. You may recollect that we had the gun out .at the racecourse on one occasion, when the volunteers from New Plymouth and other places' came to Hawera for a field day. Several cartridges were fired from it.on that occasion. The concussion is 6aid to have made the Hawera windows rattle."

power under the sky that can drive them from the path of sanity and honor. No one can measure the consequences of a general war. The original cause would soon be lost in the greaterand more terrible issues which would be raised. No one can say that there is any Great Power which would not be involved in such a cataclysm. No one can say there is any institution in Europe which would certainly be left standing at its close. All might be cast into the abyss, and in the destruction of a few weeks or months injury might be wrought to the fabric of our economic and social life which would plunge it back almost into the desolation and barbarism of the Middle Ages. The only epitaph to write upon such a catastrophe would be that this whole generation of men went mad and tore themselves to pieces. The policy which Great Britain is pursuing has two objects, and only two-, to limit the area of the war now raging, and to promote so far we legitimately can the permanent happiness of the Balkan and the Hellenic people.