Thread: Firearms in NZ in the 1850s

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

Was there a Wild West so to speak during that time?

Absolutely, particularly in the goldfields. In the 1860's in the Otago goldfields it was customary to fire your guns and reload them every evening. That served to remind claim jumpers of the consequences and also to make sure the charges in the muzzle loaders were fresh. The area where I now live had many towns that could have come straight out of a western movie, there were several bushrangers operating in the area, and a great number of unsolved deaths, usually thrown into the Clutha river and never seen again. One of the stated reasons for the introduction of the Arms Act in 1921 was because of the large numbers of people carrying pistols in the cities. During the debates in Parliament at the time , the PM gave the assurance that nothing in the proposed act would prevent a home-owner from keeping a pistol in his bedside drawer for self-defence. My grandfather was accosted by an armed robber in Moorhouse Ave, Ch-Ch one pay-day evening by an armed robber about 1912. He managed to disarm him and threw him in the gutter, taking the gun home only to be visited by the Police a few hours later for assault because he had broken the thugs leg. After he showed the cops the gun and told them the story was the crook charged with attempted armed robbery. The NZ history of the 1800's was every bit as wild as the US!