§ COLONEL HUGHES-HALLETT (Rochester)asked the Surveyor General of the Ordnance, Whether the Metford rifle barrel has been officially recommended for adoption in the place of the reversed ratchet barrel as issued to the Army experimentally; and, if so, the date of the recommendation; and, whether any decision has been arrived at with respect to the Metford barrel; and, if not, when a decision may be expected?
§ THE SURVEYOR GENERAL OF ORDNANCE (Mr. NORTHCOTE) (Exeter)On the 5th of January last the Special Committee on Small Arms recommended that the Metford system of rifling should be adopted for Her Majesty's Service; and on the 18th of February the Secretary of State for War intimated to that Committee, when giving instructions as to magazine arms, that the question of rifling had been determined in favour of the Metford system.