Army Equipment.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 155, 29 May 1900, Page 3

Army Equipment.

Some idea of the onortnous expense that O-reat Britain has incurred in she present vvai may bo obtained from a few details with regard to the cost of equipping an army. A. Lee Metford rifle co'stg the Imperial Government about v€S 12-5 6J. and the conversion of the old Mtirtini represents an extra expenditure of mora than £1 for each weapon. The sword bayonet used by artillery costs £1 6s 6d, though the oidinary sword bayonet 'can bo made' tor from 19s to 12s. If a laucer fails to racover his lance iv his rapid charge, ha loses £1 11s of Li-s country:* money. The sword of the drummer ana iho bugler costs 10s, but thai; of a member of th » Housohold Cavalry five times as much. The bandoliers supplied to the Yeomanry and otheis, and made o? web belting, to take fifty rounds of ammunition, costs 9s 3d, the waist, belt 80 6d, the pouch 2s 2d, arid the water bottle, with felt covering < an 1 spring clip, 2s 3d. The iron or &tee!mched snddla, with a paddad seat, costs abouc £0, and the accessories bring the cost of this pait of hh e cquipmeut up to nearly £7 10s, so that when 120 troopers' horses are killed, the country loses, in the j matter of equipment alone about £1000. A fatigue carfc costs £43, a forage cart .£4B, and a cavalry transport waggon £'i3>. The great eavalc^cle of 5000 waggons which' vrended its way from Cbiovely to i Potgiefcer's Drift represented a sum ot £253,000, outbida the cr*n;or,ts. In the heavy transport carts and wagons the wheels cost from &d to .£lO, tbe springs £11 and tho saddicry for thu ' horses that draw the vehicles £9 ss. The artillery Maxitu gun itself costs only £155, but its carriage costs nearly a3 much, the forges -which are invarialby sent with it cost from i£l2l to £125. the feeding belts £12, the navel mounting £66, and so on, .the aggre, gateareaehiug a verj -lar^s earn, "ffbe

quick tiring gws of iiu fi Id type are still more expensive, the six inch quick-firer co^bin^ Jb'l42o. The cose of c -.jrp gnns is p "iter still, as some or thatn cannot be constructed for loss iti.ni X'jUuO. The breech-blocks of the 0.2-inch cum, cost; from £Ibs to nearly £200 The carries for iho 10 inch and 12 inch guns p.vb also voi;, expensive. Thoy are all ma-le in parts, and the 'gun slide alona ofttn co^ts as much as £8090. The bavbetta carnage of a 10 inch or 9"2 mob gun runs nice -£1200, or so, ami if it 13 of tho dis appearing tl.nct 1 . nc ia ".vhic 1 ! hydro pnn? malic cr°"r ll*l 1 * ltnolvcd, tho oot.!; is incieasod fourlold.