THE BROAD ARROW.
Tho3e who have ever been in a Royal dockyard or Government warehouse will have noticed that the materials used in shipbuilding, and all stores gunerally. are marked by a broad arrow, head. This sign situ ply shows that the articles in ijuestion are Government property, and is employed to prevent them from being stolen. It is not clear how the mark arose. In or>hef:>re IG9S a dealer was prosecuted fur having stores which bore tliis stamp. His only reply was that it was very curious the the King and he used the same private mark. Though the change was 'dismissed, an Act or Parliament was passed in the year named, to the effect that all persons who possessed naval stores or soods of any kind marked with the broad arrow, or other marks named in the Act, should forfeit the goods, and pay a fine of £2OO and costs. The arrow head is probably a corruption of some letter or sign used to indicate rank or power. Indeed, it has been asserted to be the broad A of the Druids, who used to attach this sense to the letter.
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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2436, 27 October 1886, Page 2
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192THE BROAD ARROW. Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2436, 27 October 1886, Page 2
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