DEFENCE OF THE COLONY. (Special Telegram to Lyttelton Times.) Wellington, May 3.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 1880, 6 May 1878, Page 2

DEFENCE OF THE COLONY. (Special Telegram to Lyttelton Times.) Wellington, May 3.

An important tologram has boon rocoived by the Governor from tho Secretary of State for tho Colonies on tho subject of the defonco of Now Zealand in tho ovont of Great Britain becoming involved in war. Unfortunately, tho Wording of the message, owing to errors in transmission, is in several respects so obscure that the Government havo tolographod back to have tho message ropoatcd, and unluckily tho lino has broken down just <*t this very critical period. This much, ho vevor, is clearly learned from Sir Michael Hicks-Beach's telegram : — Tho Imperial Government, on the first symptoms that war was imminont, instructed a Special Committee of military and engineering officers to report upon tho best moans of defending tho British Colonies in tho event of England being compollod to go to war. This Committee has reported *vi4h reference to Now Zealand that, upor. careful consideration, thoy havo come to tho conclusion that a defence of this Colony by «oa is utterly impracticable, and should not bo attempted. On the other hand, thoy recommend a system of land batteries at the four princip«il ports of New Zealand, viz., Wellington, Auckland, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers, by which thoy consider those ports practically could bo defended against any class of vessels at all likely to bo despatched by a foreign power to those soas. Thoy further estimate that 22 heavy guns, viz., 11 7-tons guns and 11 64-pounders, of the patterns used by Hor Majesty's ships of war would bo sufficient to provide an adequate armament for the batteries above mentioned. They state (so far as can bo gatherod from the obscure wording of the tolcgram in this part), that tho total cost of these 22 guns, including their transport to New Zealand, tho construction of tho battorios, and tho mounting of tho guns in the batterios, would be at the rate of about L2OOO per gun, or L 44.000 in all. This is practically tho samo course as that which the Government had decided to adopt in tho evont of var being doclared, and a« tho present aspect of affairs in Eastern Europe is most menacing, Ministers havo resolved to telograph instantly to havo tho 22 guns forwarded to New Zealand by the earliest opportunity. Should tho present strenuous efforts of the British Government to preserve peace prove futile, and war become inevitable, the earliest possible intimation of this will be telegraphed to the Governors of the various Colonies. It is tho intention of the Now Zealand Government, should such a deplorable evont occur, immodiately on the unwelcome news being received, to telegraph to Colonel Scratchloy, requesting him to come over and advise tho Government as to tho distribution of the guns among the four porfs indicated, their most .effective disposal, the 'boat plan of mounting thorn, locating the batteries, &o. It is intended, further, to man tho batteries with a body of local artillory-mon to bo trained for the purpose. No time will bo' lost in carrying out this plan.