AN ALARMING INCIDENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1717, 25 January 1905, Page 17

AN ALARMING INCIDENT.

At the Central Battery, Ocean Beach, on the 14tli inst., says the “Otago Daily Tunes,” the No. 2 Company, Garrison Artillery, as contestants in the annual big gun competition for New Zealand batteries, manned the guns under the direction and supervision of Major Johnston (of Wellington) as umpire, with Captain Fredric as battery commander. Major-General Babington vat a Isopresent. The conditions ox the competition were the firing of thirteen shots at what are known as Hongkong targets, which at the commencement of the shooting were at a distance of 4000 yards from the battery, and were kept moving by means of a towline attached to the steamer Express, Captain Ityffel, which had been chartered by the Defence Department for the purpose. The shooting of both guns was excellent up to the eleventh shot, when an unaccountable occurrence in the sending of the twelfth shot- only a few feet over the top of the Express brought the shooting to an abrupt termination. The disqualification of the battery by Major Johnston followed, and the order to cease firing w r as at onoe given.

The targets, which were towed by the steamer Express, were distant twenty yards apart, the first being 300 yards astern of the steamer, the object of the gunners being to place the shells between the two Hongkongs as they moved through the water. Plugged shells were used in the competition. The eleventh shot, which was fired by the B 1 gun, in place of passing between the Hongkongs, was observed to pass between the tug and the first Hongkong, but the next from the B 1 gun was noticed to ricochet along the water about 103 yards beyond the tug, over which it had passed at a height of some 15ft.

How such a miscalculation on the part of the layer of the gun occurred is not easily understood, but probably the fact that time, as well as accuracy, was a factor in the competition may have had something to do with it. The tug started from a point 4000 yards from the battery, and moved in a diagonal line, and was .3300 yards from, the battery when the last shot, which went over her, was fired.

It is expected that a searching inquiry will be held into the occurrence.