FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 90, 13 October 1934, Page 14

FIFTY YEARS AGO

PLANS FOR DEFENCE,

In an address to the New Zealand Institute, the Governor-General (Lieut.General Sir W. Jervois) said that there was no harbour in Australia or New Zealand more suitable far naval defence than was Auckland. Little had been done in New Zealand, however, as a protection against external aggression. Four torpedo-boats had been provided,

and some years before the Government had ordered guns and ammunition, but these had not yet been set up. The main plan should be to fortify Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, Port Chalmers, and Bluff. The guns then in New Zealand were 7-inch and 64----pounder'muzzle-loading rifles, the latter not being armour-piercing. He considered that 8-inch breech-loaders should be obtained.

The defence of Wellington could be best carried out by batteries on Point Halswell, Gordon Point, and at a point midway between, with a- rearguard station on Mount Crawford. Guns should also be mounted above Karwarra, and, in later years, at Point Dorset and Ward and Somes Islands.

He made the practical suggestion of utilising certain vessels of the Union Steam Ship Company as auxiliary cruisers. The Rotomahana, Tarawera, Waihora, Hauroto, and Rotorua, together with the New Zealand Shipping Company's Aorangi, Ruapehu, and Tongariro and two Shaw, Savill boats could easily be so adapted.

The "Evening Post" of October 6, 1884, entered a plea for a working trial of the new torpedo boats, which had not had steam up since their arrival from England. "They may, for defence purposes, be blind mice," concluded "The Post," "but let us at least 'see how they run.' " The total arrivals in New Zealand for September, 1884, were 1066, of whom 362 came from the United Kingdom, 307 from New South Wales, 311 from Victoria, 34 from Tasmania, 21 from Fiji, and 31 from other places. The departures totalled 65.

The steamer Triumph was floated out of the dock at Auckland on October 7, 1884, after having been completely repaired. A Hamburg firm had contracted to supply the German Navy with coal at New Britain and the Marshall Islands.

ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT. Herbert Hunt (Shannon). —The Martha

Ridgeway, 621 tons, left Britain on March 3, 1840, and arrived at Wellington on July 8 of that year.