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Tauranga Argus and Opotiki Reporter, Volume 1, Issue 22, 20 April 1867, Page 3

A New Gun.— We learn from the Army Navy Gazette that the Chasseurs of the Guard , have lately been making some experiments at Yersailles with the Chassepot gun, with which they have' been armed for about a month, This weapon carries a thousand metres with great precision ; it is furnished with an india rubber plug which hermetically closes fche barrel. and the needle is sbort. The gun fires fifteen rounds a minute, but in ordinary practice the officers regulate the discharges at eight shots in that time. To exceed that rate would be to risk the too rapid exhaustion of the amunition, andinterfere with the accuracy of the aim. -The weapon is light, being only about eight pounds and a half. The ball is small, which enables the soldier td carry more eartridges. A sabre bayonet is fitted to the end of the barrel. The Chassepot is infinitely superior to the Prussian gun, which only carries 400 metres, s'pirts out in thesoldier's fafce, and is furnished with too long a needle which frequently breaks. This This new 'weapon has been admired by everybody who have seen the Chasseurs shooting witli it, and' who already acquired remarkable address. At 1000 yards distance the target was hit at le& st thirty times out of a hundred. The Atlautic Telegraph has been silent since Monday 21st till Saturday the 26th of January. The Spectator, in noticing the matter, jsays : — " The Atlantic Telegraph has been silent since Monday, in consequence of a great snow-storm which broke a land cable on the American side, but the Atlantic Gable itself is uniujured. We wish that its sileuce were less unimportant. People who thirst to ktiow the last price of gold and Five-Twenties are in suspense ; but as regards political news, or what stands for it, the silence has been a change for the better. A see-saw of baseless rumors about the progress of the inquiry into the reasous for impeachmcnt is the less objectionable the loi ger it is detained in New York.