The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2845, 2 April 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1872.

Now that the affairs of Europe are comparativaly quiet, the defenceless state of the Ports of New Zealand excites no appivhvnawn. The imme-

Late danger has past and is forgotten, yVc do not think it ever was realised ij our population, even when most imninent. Some looked upon it as the :luty of the Government to provide liarhor defences —which is no doubt true ; but being translated, only means that the Government must spend the monej r provided by the Others entertain such very humble ideas of the wealth of Dunedin as to imagine it not worth the cost of attacking, foi rrctful that one element in the calculation would be the proportion the prize bore to the value of the necessary armament. At Home the difficulty of harbor defence was at once realised. It has long been felt there that stone walls have disadvantages as well as advantages when opposed to the broadsides of iron clads, and that practically the coast of England must be defended by a fleet, expensively constructed, expensively manned, and expensively armed. Recent advances in science seem to point to a reversal of all this. In an article published in the Mail of January loth, we are told that “ The germ of a great revolution may, perhaps, be detected in certain modest preparations of our naval and military authorities at this moment.” This foreshadowed revolution is the substitution of the torpedo in naval warfare for the cannon ball or shell. The Mail gives the following short account of what may be expected a.™ fI IP nmimsfitl change of system

An explosion of gunpowder under a ship s bottom might readily he expected to destroy the vessel, but how was the gunpowder to be placed in the necessary position, or its b,-nit-ion to be effected at the proper moment. Those were the questions requiring solution, and the solution is now, perhaps, at hand. The operation of the machine may be contemplated under two distinct heads, A system of fixed torpedoes might be organised for the protection of any port, arsenal, or river, so as to render access impossible ; or the torpedoes themselves might possibly be launched, like shells, against hostile vessels wherever‘iicouiitered. Ihc ailtej u»e of ihe machine is the more novel, and is expected to be the more efficacious. If mdecd such anticipations as those wo suggcstcu in a late issue .should he substantia.ly realised, one of two results must apparently ensu either naval warfare would become to a great extent impossible, or naval tactics would be entirely revolutionised. The new method of attack would consist, apparently, in the discharge of power!ul artillery against the bottom of an enemy’s ship, and thus it is already questioned whether our new ironclads are not armored in the wrong pqT.ce. They carry their plating on their sides, whereas their sides would not on tae new system be exposed to attack ; and they have little or no armor beneath the water-line, where the torpedo shots would actually strike them. Could any armor of any thickness or character resist the effect of a torpedo!' Would any naval expedition be Practicable in defiance of a well-arranged system of torpedo defences? Might not a Torpedo Corps, in short, do all that could he required for the protection of our shores, and a small flotilla of torpedo boats become more formidable at sea than the most costly Channel Squadron ? So far lias the change commended itself to the Home authorities, that a company of Hoyal Engineers has been formed into a Torpedo Corps, and one man-of-war, “ it is understood, will bo built for ihe same novel, and, as yet, unappreciated service.” Jt is impossible to overestimate the value of such a cheap means of protection us is thus indicated. Island kingdoms, like Great Britain or New Zealand, may be made absolutely unapproachable. The Mail, assuming the “ success and capacity of the invention ” to be established, points out that the shores of England might be rendered “ absolutely seem e against hostile attacks at an inappiedable cost, and an invasion become an impossibility. Armaments expressly maintained to prevent such a contingency, might be dispensed with, and as foreign shores would be equally impregnable, the occupation ot powcilul navies would bo gone, “ftis a question whether a line of battle ship would ever be employed again.” As the invention of rifled guns and explosive projectiles, rendered a threedecker “simply a huge shell trap,” might not our finest ironclad be just as helpless against a little torpedo boat ?

Our cruisers might, indeed, scour the seas, but they could hardly blockade a port; in fact, that operation was found to be extremely dangerous during the American Civil War, when torpedo practice was in its infancy. Once place a ship in position, and a torpedo might be made to reach her. The Federal Commanders were quick to recognise the new hazard of naval warfare, hut they could not invent any method of defence. Yet on those occasions there were no torpedo guns— nothing but machines either rudely constructed to tioat in water or adapted for attachment by hand to hostile vessels. Turn such machines into projectiles capable of being bred from invisible guns, and who will venture to calculate the results V The Mail, or perhaps we ought to have said the Time*, of which the Jlail is a reprint, points out that it is possible the torpedo-gun may not answer, but the object now should be to ascertain its value, and concludes : If ironclads after tiie present are doomed, we cannot avert the doom by shutting our eyes to it. If the days of monster guns are past, we need not go on manufacturing them. If the gun of the future is a torpedo, and the fighting ship of the future a torpedo boat, we had better provide ourselves with the new vessels and the new artillery, and then see what armaments wc may dispense with in turn. The possible importance of

the question is infinite, but our plain duty is to apply ourselves at once to the discovery of the truth, to recognize it in its full dimensions when discovered, and to make the best of the conditions ultimately before us.