The report sent to the police the other day that someone had fired a gun at
Fort Denison has not yet been cleared up. The charge of the island is in the
hands of the Navigation Department. Last Saturday morning the Superintendent
of Navigation, Captain Edie, received a report from the caretaker of the
island, in which it was stated that a charge had been fired from the gun on
top of the turret early that morning. The matter was placed in the hands of
the police, who have since been investigating the affair. "The joke was
accentuated by a piece of painted calico being left on the place," said
Captain Edie yesterday. "I have never seen a Boer flag, so can't say whether
it was like one or not, but, in order to get the blank charge into the gun
and fire, the man, I should think, must have climbed up the lightning
conductor. Nobody was hurt, and at best it was a foolish and mad-brained
business."'