HARBOUR DEFENCE

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1845, 21 January 1880, Page 3

HARBOUR DEFENCE

Colonel Scratehley, BE , arrived from Wellington yesterday morning, and made a preliminary inspection of the port with a view to fixing upon a eite for a battery. The Lyttelton Harbor Board's steamer left the T»harf at eleven o'clock on the cruise of inspection, there being on board Colonel Scratehley, Colonel Packe, Major ■ Lean, Captain Johnson of the Marine Department, Hon. E. Bichardson, Mr C. H. Williamß, the secretary to the Harbor Board, and the harbor master, Captain McLellan. The bays and headlands on the Lyttelton side of the harbor were first visited, and the shore facing seaward round G-odley Head, and to the northward as far as the Sumner beach. The steamer was then headed for Port Levy, and an examination there made of the acceesible points for landing a hostile crew. The course round the south head of the harbor was then taken, and into Little Port Cooper (the pilot Btation) whore an exhibition of the steamer's fire engine power was given. Camp Bay was next visited, and the party landed upon the sloping headland which terminates the western boundary of that bay. At about one hundred feet above sea level, a very fair position for a battery wbb found on the slope of this headland. The situation is one which commands a clear range of the entrance to the port, and of the harbor right up to the anchorage ground. It would, however, have but little shelter from an enemy's fire, and also has the disadvantage of being upon the side of the harbor opposite to Lyttelton. * After leaving this headland the steamer crossed to the' Lyttelton shore, close into Q-ollan'd Bay. The range from there would not be nearly so extensive as from the other shore, and on the other hand the battery would not be bo much exposed. Before making his final recommendation to the Government, Colonel Scratehley will hold a further inspection. The harbor, owing to its acceßsibleness, is considered an unusually difficult one to fortify, and to do so completely would involve an outlay of a very large sum of money.