§ COLONEL HUGHES - HALLETT (Rochester)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether it is true, as stated in The Admiralty and Horse Guards Gazette, that Nordenfelt rapid-firing shell-guns have been manufactured in the Royal Gun Factory at Woolwich for the inventor and patentee of those guns, the late Government charging the said inventor the sum of £150 per gun so manufactured and delivered to him in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich; whether the Government subsequently repurchased from the patentee at £360 per gun these same guns which had cost him only £150 per gun; and, whether these guns were tried, proved, and accepted by the same authorities who manufactured them, and whether it has since been discovered that the cost of manufacture of the said guns to the late Government exceeded the cost charged to Mr. Nordenfelt; and, if so, by how much?
§ THE SURVEYOR GENERAL OF ORDNANCE (Mr. NORTHCOTE) (Exeter)(who replied) said: The facts are not accurately stated by this paper. The quick-firing guns were not made at Woolwich. The circumstances were as follows:—A contract was entered into with Mr. Nordenfelt for a certain number of these guns with fittings and mountings complete, and, to facilitate supply, it was arranged that the barrels only should be made for him in the Royal Gun Factory. He was charged at the rate of £131 19s. 5d. and a fraction per barrel, being the cost of production, plus 10 per cent; and, therefore, the price originally tendered by Mr. Nordenfelt—namely, £376 per gun and mounting complete—was lessened by this amount. The guns and fittings were like all guns for Her Majesty's Service, by whomsoever made, tried, proved, and accepted by the authorities of the Royal Gun Factories. As appears from the above, this cost of the barrels to the Government did not exceed that charged to Mr. Nordenfelt.