HISTORIC BELLS.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 20 June 1919, Page 4

HISTORIC BELLS.

SOLD AS SCRAP METAL. When the New Zealand Government decreed that the bells of the old Gorman Church in Hereford street "should go into tile melting pot, il was not inspired by Tennyson’s New Year resolution to “liing out the -false, ring in Hie true.’’ -Metal meant money. Those bells have rung true lo J.a Belle Franee through different stages of vicissitude. They came from France. It had been written of them that they had been made of (he metal in a French cannon raptured by the victors in the Fvunco-l’russian war, but the Government analysis of the coinposition after the bells had been melted down by .Messrs Price and Son hardly bears tills out. The Government Analyst reported chat the percentages of various metals were: Copper 07.82. tin 21.51, zinc !>.30, iron, etc., .40. lead 1.47. However, the origin of what came to be known in Christchurch ns the “German bells’’—whether they had once roared defiance to France’s invaders. or whether they meekly called French patriots to prayer—does not mutter. They belonged to France.

They- fell into German possession, and subsequently found their way to the hoi fry of the German Church in Hereford street. When the Great War started, some people thought that Franco was to come into her own so far as the bolls were concerned; But it was not so. Yesterday (says the Christchurch “Press”) the unshapely remnants of the bells, in silent, ingot form, were offered at per pound to live bidders whom a casual observer would select to lie blacksmiths or tinsmiths. These bidders had u good idea of tile commercial value of metal. The belts went into the melting pot, and

came out as ,17cwt 211 b of metal—to be converted into pounds, shillings and

Mr W. K. Simes. who conducted the auction on behalf of,Mr Charles Clark, said he .was selling with some degree of regret, for lie thought the bells should have . remained intact and been sold by auction, the money to go to some patriotic fund mid the bells back to France.

.Mr T. I>. Kendall, the Public Trustee. interjected that the Government had decided to “scrap” the bells- after consultation with the French Consul at Auckland. (fMr Simes said that if the metal were «ohl as souvenirs during the peace celebrations it would tiring a bigger return than by selling in ingots. Bidding started at Kid a pound, and -it Is Xid—-nearly-" double the reserve price set—the lot was knocked down to Price ami Son. Tie -.archase price works out at £il(i (is fFd. which amount, less expenses, will be held in trust. The auctioneer remarked that the money could go to help pay Germany's indemnity