BOER WAR RELIC

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 97, 10 September 1912, Page 6

BOER WAR RELIC

DUMPED BY NIGHT INTO 1 THE RIVER. " ANTI-MILITARISTS' BLAMED. Christchurch,September 5. More than one protest has been made regarding the "pom pom" gun placed in Victoria square. Many objected to its presence as a glorification of war, and others protested on the ground thai? it was not fitting to place in prominent public positions trophies of war captured from people who are 110w members of the British Empire. '' : Last night the protest fobk : a'-more emphatic form, for tlie'guiv \tfai Removed from its fastenings and t'hrtj\vn :: lnto : tlie river. The gun was securely bolted down 011 to a concrete bed.' ; I't" Was-'thought that the task of liberating it would be too difficult to be performed witliout detection by some passers-by, 1 but kst night the fastenings pruvlid the gun. with all its attachments, was 1 removed. The confidence of the 'jta/rtv 'Mich removed the gun can be gua£(# by lluvfact that it was wheeled, rotinff•thVafa'tue'of Quean Victoria, 011 th'e. ifeutlicW''sideJ and then parallel to tile* Wsl'fern' Tehee, of the grass plot.'to'appoi n t i^:W'Victoria Htreet. • ■ i-fl i; :■'! ! '• -i It appeared as if 'i : Tia4 J Wn made for the easiest 1 piWitJ at VM:h..to break through -.the feni J e:' v, The' Miii* was wheeled in a northern 'direction' again, and a section of the fenCb' wWVetiibved, the spiked chain was taken '6flY'iiild the gun pulled over the wire-netting in the aperture. - ii ■ Lxit from the grass plot was effected just opposite the slope used by the drivei'ii of carts. The marauders, however, did not desire that the-gmi -shoiild' run easily into the river, so. .they energetically pulled it 011 to'{he bank, nnd Jet it dash down a steep incline, into the Avon. -:i It goes without saying that.the lilame for the unwarrantable interference Svith the gun is laid at the door of the nntir militarists, who have 011 occasions protested strongly against' the'"rfejii <Vf barbarism," as thev described it, 'lieiii"'allowed to remain in a; .pulil'ic reserve iu tlto <?i*ntro of the city, ' 1 1: :