Those Home-made Cartridges.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1806, 12 March 1886, Page 2

Those Home-made Cartridges.

Dusno the ” War Scare some months back, the Government, in order to encourage local industry, gave an order to an Auckland firm some far millions of rifle cartridges to be made in the colony. Well, the cartridges were made, and an odd million or so of them handed over to the Government. They were tried the other day at Wanganui by picked rifle volunteers. The reenlt waa hardly satisfactory. la the attempt to fire off the cartridges sundry rifles and carbines were altogether spoiled. These cartridges either “ hung fire, missed fire, or exploded the wrong way, doing much damage to the whiskers and eyebrows of tbe volunteers who had been foolhardy enough to attempt to fire them off. In short, tbe Auckland-made cartridges have turned out to be dangerous thiogs to meddle with by those who want to use them, either for target practice, or against an enemy. It was tbe very quintessence of official stupidity to order cartridges to be made in the colony, when they could be Imported of oi first rate quality at far lower prices, than an absolutely useless article could be produced in tbe ooleny.