NEW ZEALAND SHRAPNEL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 75, 28 July 1915, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SHRAPNEL.

TESTS OF A BLENHEIM SHELL. At Trentham on -Monday morning a New Zealand-made shell for iield guns was given a practical test under service conditions'. The maker of the shell is Mr (.'. Birch, of Blenheim, who is sanguine concerning the .possibilities of establishing shell making among the industries of the Dominion. Last week a sample shell was exhibited in Parliament, and on Monday about a dozen Parliamentarians, headed by the Hon. ¥. \Y. Lang,

Speaker of the House of Representatives, journeyed out to Trentham i<> witness the tests. The Now Zealand Times reports that these were carried out by a squad of the (sth Reinforcements Battery, under Lieutenant Tomlin, the gun being an 18-pounder quick-firer. Captain Bradley, artillery instructor, directed the operations, and Brigadier-Genera] Robin (Commandant of the Forces), Colonel G. V. C. Campbell (Coast Defence Commandant), ami a number of other officers watched the tests.

The shell used was shrapnel, three rounds of Imperial make being fired

lirst to fix the range. The targets consisted of a mixed lino of khaki and white objects on a dull background on a la ill a mile distant. The

range having been found the new ammunition was put to the best, and so ■ far as the layman could judge the [result was eminently satisfactory. The little bursts of shrapnel just 'above or in front of the target line indicated that an enemy thereabouts would have had a very bad time indeed amidst the spreading gust of leaden pellets. j A subsequent visit to the target area showed that the shrapnel had 'searched the ground thoroughly over a space a hundred yards by fifty on the side of the hill. Shell cases that were found seemed to have burst in accordance with the requirements of

their special purpose in warfare—which was. as General Robin explained before the shooting began, to kill 7he enemy's men—but the official verdict will be given later, after careful examination of .Monday's results.