ARTILLERY INSTRUCTOR PROMOTED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2077, 11 May 1907, Page 1

ARTILLERY INSTRUCTOR PROMOTED.

Regarding Master-Gunner Richardson, a correspondent of the Christchurch Press writes: —Alter fifteen years’ faithful service, one of the most capable men in the Defence service of New Zealand, Master-Gunner Richardson, has received tardy recognition of his woi J k. That portion of the public which takes an interest in volunteering, the defence of the country, and the efficiency of its

forces, and volunteers themselves, will bo pleased to learn that recognition of the Master-Gunner’s long uni valuable service to the colony has •ome at last. Henceforth he will bo Captain Richardson, Chief Instructor in Artillery for the colony. Painstaking, affable, capable, and unassuming, there is no man in the service more respected than Captain Richardson. He has all along broi untiring in bis work and the inventive genius he has brought to bear in the instruction of officers lias been ef the most marked kind. For tile Garrison Artillery alone lie lias done wo ;- lers. At tho depot in Buckle street, lie invented and erected a mothjl of practising fort-manning without pcng to the forts, by arranging a .system of model guns with the service breach mechanism. He also invent-

'd and equipped a system of moving argots placed on the back-ground, ixactly representing a sea-scape fr -in lie forts. Ho also lias erected at the raining sheds a fire-commander’s st-a-

ion, with a special observation de-

vice ’"iff his own, which enables t hirers to practise at the sheds, observations of the results of fire, just as they would at the forts. Further, he invented a system of communicating by dials and telephones, on the same

plan as obtains at the forts. For tho FioldArtillory he provided equally irgenious and instructive appliances. He also took the Imperial service instruction books (written for G-gun

Q.F. shielded ordnance), and adapted them to tho system in vogue here, thereby enabling officers to carry out

the principles of artillery work as adapted to arms on issue in New Zealand. Similarly, ho lias prepared manuals for the instruction of officers in camp, and generally has been most indefatigable in tlio training of the men under his charge.

The Mnmiwatu Daily Times discussing the alleged eruption of Mt. Ktiupoh.il, suggests as one explanation of the rumor, that .something must be wrong with the “crater” consumed in the Obakime and Kactilli districts and advises tho admixture of a little more water. The reports of the eruption, it further asserts, are industriously spread by disappointed land speculators who even at the eleventh hour, are trying to" obtain, for their own benefit a diversion of the Main Trunk route nearer to their properties at Raetilii. This throws ail interesting light on tho Ruapehu mystery and the subterranean rumblings board nightly at Ohakune.