KING EDWARD PARK GUN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 20 October 1922, Page 4

KING EDWARD PARK GUN.

SOME INTERESTING HISTORY. Mr. Alfred Trimble, writing to the1 town clerk (Mr. H. S. Elliott), in reply , to an enquiry concerning the history | of the gun in King Edward Park,] says: — j On the 31str October, 1885, I wrote to Lieut.-Colonel Stapp, who then commanded the Taranaki military district, suggesting that one of the old cast-j 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 otner matters relating to this class of ordnance, and was prepared to give tne necessary instruction. After some correspondence, the gun now at Hawera was sent from Auckland. There appears to have; been some difficulty about getting a j carriage for it; but eventually a stanu- i nig garrison carriage was made by Mr. Syme from my working drawings, the trucks being cast at W'anganui. Other necessary stores were supplied, and! some of the men were instructed in; gun drill. The gun is a 32-pounder smooth-bore cast-iron gun, of 25cwt, and belongs to the lightest class of 32----pounders made. It could be used with solid shot, case shot, and grape shot only, and was not designed for shellfire. The service charge of powder ' was found pounds. How the gun came to be in New Zealand I do not know; but fancy 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 LiexTi.Colone! Stapp are interesting, as show, ing my own ideas with regard to the defence of the colony at the time tney were written; but it would take too long to make copies of them just now. , and the present generation of local military men may not appreciate them. You may recollect that we had the gun out at the racecourse on one occa-; sion, when the volunteers from New , Plymouth and other places came to Hawera for a field-day. Several blank cartridges were fired from it on that occasion. The concussion is said to . have made the Hawera windows rattle. There does not seem to he more that I can say.