CANDIAN ARTILLERY MANUFACTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5634, 6 December 1879, Page 7

CANDIAN ARTILLERY MANUFACTURE.

The successful trial of a G4-pouailer Palliser rifled gun made in Canada is ail event of Imperial importance. Ko attempt at ritl-d gun manufacture had, we b lieve, been made in the colonies ; and that this, the lirstone, should have been si ccessful is an immense stride towards the complete armament of the outlying portions of the British empire. Heavy guns are expensive things to purchase, and colonial Governments ar. 1 , as a rule, too busy making roads and railways to spare money to tend to England for guns. To make them with theirowu workmen, in their own shops, and with their own cnal and iron, is a very different thing, and this lias cow been successfully accomplished, through the assistance of Sir William Palliser, who al?o makes no claim on Canada for the use of his system, The Palliser guns have upon two occasions met other guns in open competi ion, once in Englaud and once in the United States, anl have iu each instance tignally defeated tlicir rivals. Out of about 2,01)0 gnus in constant use in England and America, not one ha-j ever burst at proof or in the service. Canada lias thus secured what would appear to be the safest system of artillery on record, the manufacture of whijh is now proved to be within the powers of private iians of moderate pretensions in the colonies. Wo are informed that apowcrful armour piercing Palliser rille, which can act either as a breechloader or muzzle-loader, is tobi atones commenced in Canada for coast defenco. In Australia, New Zealand, and the Cape are private firms who, no doubt, consider tliemBelves as enterprising and capiblo as tho clever engineers, Messrs. Gilbert and Sons, of Montreal, who have und-rtaken the armament of the Dominion, so that wo hope to see tho examplo of Canada followed with enorgy, and armaments completed which have hitherto been touched only under the pressure of threatening war. —Globe.