GOVERNMENT INFORMED OF THE MATTER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 114, 12 May 1909, Page 5

GOVERNMENT INFORMED OF THE MATTER.

A little over two years ago (says a Wellington contemporary) the Defence Department deemed it advisable to realise on a large stock of old Snider and Mai'tini-Henry rifles, which had been rendered obsolete by the importation of later-pattern arms, and had been stored for a number of years in the defence stores in Buckle Street. Consequent upon this, advertisements were inserted in the local papers calling for purchase by tenders of the old rifles, one provision being that they must go to England, the idea being that if they were sol 3 indiscriminately they might be used by turbulent peoples opposed to the interests of the Empire. The purchaser of the greater number of the rifles gave an assurance that they were being sent to Birmingham, presumably to be taken to pieces and some of the parts used for more modern rifles. Be this as it may, the fact remains that the Government has received advice that twenty-eight of these rifles (bearing the • New Zealand stamp) have been taken from the rebel hill-tribes on the north-west frontier of India. It is well-known that the Persian Gulf is being continually watched to prevent shiploads .-of arms being landed for the use of the war-loving Afghan, and the numerous hill-tribes of ttie mountainous frontiers of North-western India, who own allegiance to none save their own chiefs. No such arms may pass through the well-guarded Khaibar Pass, yet rifles that were sleeping peacefully in Buckle Street a couple of years ago are now being used against our ow» troops in India. The rifles were sold tfor a song—they are singing to some purpose now in one of "the most important military strategical positions in Asia. In some quarters it is claimed that there has been a lack of common prudence in the of these arms—that they might have com* in very handy in the <event of universal military training feeing adonte<3. Many old riflemen -swear by the Sstider rifle as a most effective weapon «p to 600 yards, anS it is argued that those that were disposed..-of .would have been a greater valtis to the Dominion and the Empire thati the paltry sum they realised, together with the use ihey are being put to against "our owsi." The above news recalls an incident which occurred at Suva during the excitement of the Boer War. The white people there had formed a' company which had been supplied with .303 nfles. After peace was declared the life faded from volunteering in Fiji, and, ..when a year later the government called in the arms, it was found that with few exceptions the l'jflfiß harl been sold .to the Samoan rebels"

CABLE NEWS. [by electric telegraph.—coptriget.}