Poverty Bay Standard.. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1882.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1109, 29 July 1882, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard.. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1882.

A GBEiT deal has been written, and a great deal more said, regarding the best means to be adopted for the protection of our four principal ports, viz., Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, and Dunedin against the intrusion of a possible enemy. Now although we are naturally less interested in the matter than if we were resident in any of those cities, yet as the money invested in defence purposes is to be taken out of the £3,000,000 loan we are at once invested with a right to judge and speak in the matter which otherwise would be comparatively small. Mr Bryce announced to the

House of Representatives on the evening of the 17th July that “I am, or “ rather the Defence Office is, in com- “ munication with Colonel Scratchley “ on the subject The “ Government, I may say, think that “ the cost of these works will amount “ to a considerable sum, some £40,000 “ or £50,000, which they propose to “ take out of the loan and make it a “charge upon the consolidated rev- “ enue, and spread it over a period of “ four years; the work will be pro- “ ceeded with at once.” The question of expenditure evidently becomes a serious one, and we quite think the Government Estimate considerably under the mark. If defence works are to be constructed they must be constructed thoroughly, for any half measures in such expenditure must always be, even in these piping times of peace, an actual waste of good money. It occurs to us that if Col. Scratchley cannot revisit our shores, we ought at least to have the further advice on defence matters of experienced Artillerists and Engineers, both Naval and Military, before large and expensive works are commenced. To us it appears that the greatest defence of our harbors would lay in small but powerful steam rams, working in conjunction with a well organised torpedo system. Take Auckland as an example, and the remarks, mutatis mutandis, are applicable equally to the other ports quoted, one powerful steam ram, presenting little freeboard as a target, and that well-plated on a turtle back, could sink the heaviest ship afloat before she could pass the Rangitoto Channel. She could be worked inexpensively, and be always ready for active service. Her solo offence should be offered by means of her ram, which should have a draught of at least 16 feet, with three Whitehead torpedo boats under the North Head, lying always in an intake, which would’be easy of construction ; wefeelquite|sure that A ack. land would thus oe better armed than if she possessed heavily armed forts on both sides. That rams and torpedos are the only real means of defence without maintaining a regular army of artillerists, we feel quite convinced, and we recommend our suggestions to the powers that be. That the ports can be really defended at a cost of £5O, is impossible—as an attempt at defence may be made, but with such limited means, all attempts must prove futile. If £50,000 be advanced from general revenue, or from loan, let the towns interested find the remainder, but we greatly err if we in Poverty Bay shall not be asked yet to contribute far more heavily to the defence of places which have already absorbed and are now absorbing, too much of our money. Local defence should be mainly supplied by local bodies. In good trutn our snare in the allocation of this loan seems to be raidly diminishing in prospect, while the probabilities of paying for other people looms as blackly on us as Beachey Head in a fog.