MILITARY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10302, 6 November 1911, Page 3

MILITARY NOTES.

The Government of India liavo sanctioned the adoption by officers of Gurkha regiments of lines for wear with the full-dims helmet as is worn by British rifle regiments. On July 1, 1910, there were 9803 officers and 260,981 non-coms, and men in the Homo Territorial Force. On the same djite of this year the figures were 9600 and 258,853. The Admiralty hare decided that the gunnery and torpedo courses now held for retired and emergency officers shall be discontinued. In future officers actually selected to fill appointments to be taken up in the event of war or emergency will undergo such instruction as may be considered necessary to fit them for the duties. Mr T. H. Conroi, of Kingston-on-Thames, after prolonged correspondence, has just received from the War Office the medal for the China expedition under Lord Eglin, in 1880. Mr Oonroi served in the King's Royal Rifles in the China expedition, and it is only after having written fifty letters that the "War Office has granted his claim after a lapse of fifty-one years. The largest ship in commission in the British Fleet at the present time is the Hercules, 20,000 tons. The weight of metal fired in one round by all hor guns is 898611). As regards the German fleet the largest battleship at present in commission is the Thurlngen, 22,400 tons. There is no official information as to the weights of tho projectiles fired by tho guns of this ship. In tho next session of tho Japanese Parliament, an extraordinary credit, totalling £40,000,000, to spread over soven years, will l>o asked for in order to provide for the augmentation of tho fleet, which it is expected will include two super-Dread-noughts annually, making twenty-two of these to be laid down or completed by 1919. Information has leaked out of a startling occurrence in a shell magazine of the East Wear Batteries, Portland, says tho "Daily Telegraph." Regular artillery preparing for practice, on opening the shell magazines, noticed a faint greenish smoke and fumes arising from tho lydditn shells, caused by the abnormal heat. Volunteers were called for, and they removed tho shells to the grass, keeping them apart. Afterwards they wero destroyed. The value of the shells was abon# £2OOO. With reference to the discovery of gunpowder, it is of interest to mention that in 1909 Professor Duhem, of the

With reference to tlm discovery of £llll powder, it is of interest to mention that in 1909 Professor Duhein, of the Rordeaxix University, found in the Bibliotheqhe Nationale, Paris, part of a letter, liitherto unknown, from Roger Bacon to the Pope, ((12G6-G8), which the Professor hns published. Tn this letter Paeon tells his Holiness of an explosive made of saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur. Thus the solution of Bacon's anagram of 1249, given in Colonel Hime's " Gunpowder and Ammunition," published in 1.904, is unexpectedly confirmed by Bacon himself. Tn connection with the gun-tests on H.M.S. Orion, which have disclosed some weaknesses in construction of the mountings, a London messugo says that when tho 13.5 guns were fired tho most extraordinary effects were witnessed on board the ship. Tlio concussion was terrific, and the glass in many of the skylights and portholes was biwlly fractured. Li the storerooms the coverings of canned goods burst open, and much crockery was smashed. The bottom of one lifeboat fell clean out. In order to provide a more realistic target for night firing, a number of the old COft second-class torpedo-boats are being converted into practice targets at Devon port, England. When completed they will closely resemble the principal section of a modern torpedo vossel, canvas and wooden structures to represent the funnels, and other fillings, being reared above the upper deck. The interior of the beats having been cleared oul, cork is to be liilod in to render them unsinkable. When towed at varying rates of snoods and angles of bearing, these target; boats will be made to simulate the conditions presented by tho approach at. a high rate of sj)ockl of modern torpedo craft.