THE COMING NAVAL STATION.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2248, 12 May 1881, Page 3

THE COMING NAVAL STATION.

[COMMtTHIOATBD.] It would seem that the most fiery of burning questions with the seaports of New Zealand is, in a maritime point of view,— Which is to be the chosen one for the naval station ? Which port is, in other words, to have the pickings out of the men-of-war that visit this “ Britain of the South”? Modest Auckland, with a charming indifference to her faults, her inferior natural endowments, and worse than inferior artificial advantages as a coaling depot for her Majesty’s ships, is ready to assume a perfect millstone of a debt for establishing a vast dock, which from the nature of her small craft trade she is never likely to require, but is going for it purely and simply in the fond hope that the possession of such a dock will draw the coveted prize from the Admiralty. It is an old boast of hers that all the war ships in the navy could safely ride at anchor within her wonderful waters, or at all events within a radius of twenty or thirty miles of the port proper, and even in the periods of the most dismal of her “black nor’-oasters.” As for the ordinary squadron on the colonial station, should they run short of coal, and dodge in from the enemy to fill up, why of course it could be boated off to them in dingies with the greatest of ease in the world, and direct from those everlasting pits of rubbish called coal mines at the Waikato. Wellington—the earthquake and whirlwind city of this great colony—has another equally wonderful harbor, which she is quite ready to lay at the feet of Her Majesty at a moment's notice, with all its incomparable advantages, chiefest among which is that well known remarkable feature, that when the wind is in the right humor and direction, the biggest ship afloat when once in the port would have to remain in, and give any privateer outside full swing at the other ports along the coast. In fact, the whole squadron might be cornered for a week in Wellington in a sou’-wester such as detained the Te Anau there the other day. Wellington as a coaling station would be immense, her sources of supply are so secure (?) against a flying squadron of Russian “Xaskowiski ” (only one of these terrible ships soared the people of Auckland almost out of their senses a few years since). What would become of Wellington’s fleet of Newcastle colliers, which comprise her complete resources in the coal line, should a fleet of these dreadful pirates be in the neighborhood? Only those capable of calmly pondering the horrors of shipwreck, the desolations of the torpedo, &c,, &c., dare contemplate. It is not necessary to prolong] the ghastly enquiry as to what would become of the coalless and helpless British fleet then in the naval station of Wellington. Poor misdirected cantankerous Dunedin at one time succeeded in making a good many people believe that she had the port par excellence, and coal galore, internal resources of fuel from Kaitangata, which could be transported over her gently sloping railways, and be shot direct from the terminus into the coal bunkers of Her Majesty’s ships as easy to use an apt but rather inelegant expression “ as rolling off a log.” Of late years, however, her delusion has been cleared away, leaving her to contemplate the fact (by no means one of which she need be ashamed) that at Port Chalmers there is a very safe harbor for ships of a thousand tons, accessible whenever there is not too much sea on the bar. Besides, lately Dunedin has laid herself out a work about big enough to absorb a sum equal to the present trifling liability of the whole colony, namely, to have an artificial harbor of her own equal to that at Fort Chalmers. That business has quite naturally distracted whatever attention she had given to the Naval Station project, and it will no doubt continue so to the end of time, or until she has made herself a seaport, which is about the same thing. There was another port down there that tried to make a little show of her importance, namely, Invercargill. But her offers were altogether too profuse—free port, free water, and next to nothing for coal. The Admiralty, it is said, shrugged their shoulders at this offer, that was all. Turning to Lyttelton, it was found that here was a port possessing by odds more safety, more accommodation, and a greater immunity from risk in entering than any harber in the colony. Not in the memory of the oldest inhabitant has the wind from any direction ever blown so hard as to make the departure of a steamer like the Te Anau a matter even of serious difficulty, much less of impossibility. Nor it cannot be controverted that a whole squadron of our vessels could steam together on one tide right up into the inner harbor, moor at the buoys or at the wharves there in any weather, and, if required, steam out on the following tide. Moreover, any man-of-war lying in the inner harbor, like the shipping, is perfectly secure from the attack of a stranger. No enemy lying off the Heads could inflict the slightest damage 5 and with the harbor defence, as at present designed, it is hardly probable that even a “ Easkowiski ” would ever show her nose inside the Heads. Leaving out the foreign sources of supply of fuel, Newcastle and every other, the railways have been extended to every colliery on the East Coast of the Island, and a very brief period will serve, judging from the steps now being taken, ere the whole of the West Coast mines will be accessible, including that best of all steamproducing fuel, the Westport coal. In time of need, also, the disabled warships could bo brought right in from sea direct up into the largest graving dock in Australasia, and the safest in respect of the attacks of an enemy, or the attempted capture by a pursuer.