NIGHT BATTLE PRACTICE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 479, 12 April 1909, Page 6

NIGHT BATTLE PRACTICE.

AT HAHANGA BAT. - . FIRING IN FOG AND RAIN. Are we hitting Madagascar? Are we pointing at Nebraska? Are we snelling Rcna Bay ? asks you. That's tho question—what's the answer? Guess the riddle if you can, sir, And we'll pass the information to the crew. 0, there's hardly any knowing "Where the ricochets aro going 7 And tho kernel's jest been saying things to me. "Jones," sez he, the solemn fact is Mist is bad for target practice, Sights is sights, but fog is fog," sez he. Clawing out in tho teeth of a breeze coming off the Rimutakas, the Janie Seddon stood out from Mahanga Bay jetty towards Somes Island. The time was 11 p.m. on Saturday, and the night dark and foggy? Over tho water came tho "tuff, tuff, tuff" of the unseen motor launches on duty at picquot boats, scurrying north and south to warn fishing boat's and.,ships that Fort Ballance was about to begin night battle- practice with the light guns-. A dim, mist-exag-gerated shape hovo but of tho blackness somewhere, and, as she entered tho beam of tho projector, one saw the distinctive cream ftnnel and black hull of a New Zealand Shipping Company's liner, going out with her smoko blowing untidily forward over her bows. Then a four-masted ShawSavill boat passed, - and later the night mail for Lyttelton, ablazo with electric lights, came, down channel, hesitated for a minuto on tho- edge of tho shaft from the searchlight, then took it under her fore-foot and passed through, showing very white in the glare like some spectre ship or picture of "The Flying Dutchman" drawn b.v a cunning artist. "Pay Out!" came tho order from some dimly-seen gnomo on the deck of the launch, and the steel rope, holding the target, ran out far astern; an officer bent (lohii over hi 3 "observation rake" to note tlio ranging of tho shots a rocket leaped up and presently burst hot gold against the •grey sky and the shivering figures on tho deck of the "Seddon" understood that the business of repelling a torpedo-boat attack was now in being. Tho intention was to fire twenty shots from tho 12-pounder q.f. gun at a range of 2000 yards, and twenty more from tho at 17C0 yards. Tho shipping companies had been notified that this practice would ho carried out, but the fino rain and mist made tho observation of tho hugo ncoclidts very difficult, and it was not without some apprehension that the responsible officers decided to begin. As events proved they woro unablo to carry it through. Bellona's Gamo. Tho Goddess of War, when slio invented her great game to amuse humanity, spared no pains to make it interesting. She devised many pair 3 of cards, and arranged that each pair should liavo its value—heavy guns and Krupp plates, lighter guns and loss-protected parts of- ships, midget guns and torpedo boats, and finally, death. And sho -arranged it so that death should never be able to spoil tho gamo by becoming absolute and unconditional. Occasionally ono card in a pair assume a valtio too high for its follow card —tho gun grows too powerful for tho plate, or tho torpedo boat too fast for tho gunner's eye, .and then undeterred death threatens to take charge, peace conferences aro held, and' murmurs aro heard on earth that tho game, after all, is but a poor one, and unworthy of the attention of grown men. Occasionally some nations hint of ceasing to play it altogether, and tho dreadful prospect of a world with nothing to do seems actually nigh. Then the adroit Goddess balances the gamo again with a now plate, or a new gun, or a now turbino engine, and bids poor man find his amuso-