THE ARMS ACT.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15271, 22 June 1923, Page 6

THE ARMS ACT.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Your very outspoken subleader on the absurdity of the notorious Arms Act will have been read and agreed to by all law-abiding citizens of these parts. I was speaking to a high and well-known authority who has helped very largely in the framing of the Act in question, and he Is quite emphatic that the way in which this Act is being “done to death” in the South, and especially in the Waikato, is enough to make decent people shudder. It is not the Act so much as the very childish manner in which it is administered. A glaring case in point happened to me a month ago. When I went to the war an old singlebarrel unclaimed shotgun was left behind the door In my shop. There being neither lock, spring, hammer or sight on it, naturally the spiders soon covered it over with cobwebs. A registered pearifle, which was sent in for repairs a few weeks previously, was also in the shop. A raid by two law officers was duly made and the awful weapons taken away. After many sleepless nights I and two respectable citizens from miles beyond Cambridge were brought before the S.M. After an adjournment of seven days, which prevented me from keeping an important appointment in the King Country, I had to pay 2is costs. The case against the two others, being exceedingly trivial—the one for parting with his rifle to me for repairs, the other for having obliged his mate by carrying it to Hamilton—was dismissed without costs. Now, Mr Editor, without desiring to waste your valuable space, I say such treatment of lawabiding citizens is a positive disgrace. If a friend cannot deliver a rifle to do a small favour, what is the position if a wife does so? And, to go further, what about the postal authorities and even the mailman; who unconsciously carries a firearm in his mailbag? It is a good thing that I was able to do a little service to the borough by a casual remark at the Council table which caused the obsolete fowling-pieces now hanging on the walls of the Chamber to be registered—just in time. Although an order was sought for the confiscation of my old shotgun it was unsuccessful, and the spiders are now busy replacing the wanton destruction. But, jokes on one side, these weapons in the Council Chamber and the cannon in the Memorial Park should be confiscated before anything serious occurs.—l am, etc., J. G. HARP.