The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1905. OUR COAST DEFENCES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7717, 20 January 1905, Page 2

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1905. OUR COAST DEFENCES.

About 1859 or 1860, when British warships firsl approached the Chineso coasts with hostile intent, they found thiein appatently defended by miles on- miles of continuous batteries. A cibsscr inspection with the glass betrayed the fact that the greater part of these consisted of painted matting, on which great black circles reprcsent!od th'o mouths of -guns of enormous j calibre. It is long since those days], and the Chinese have learned I better than to try to fool any enj emy with a scarecrow now. ilut it I is a (juestion whether the people of I this colony, in the year 1905, are much loetter oil liu the way of coas'tal defences than the Chinese were in 1859. We do not wish to imply a "doubt as to the will and bravery of our artillerymen—those go without saying. iiut in case of war the question is plainly : Are our forts of any practical, use ? (•ranting that the wildss o oting at' Dunedin is exceptional, there still remains Hie fact that none of the" shots find at the target Hit the murk, and that, two at least ncorly hit thjo towing steamer which was at a distance to thy left of about 400 yards. It is said that the gunner who laid the gun in the latter case actually aimed at the steamer in mistake for the target. We simply do not Ix'.'ieve tin's ; simh a thing could only occur either wilfully oil with some mistaken notion that the steamer represented iihe object to be shot at. We do not think it matters, however, very greatly, how tho result came about ; the f a ct Jemains that in cool practice our artillerymen are so raw and unused to tiheir weapons as to miss every time out of .a dozen or so of shots and miiss very wildly morc t) , an once. 'lhc point then is, what is tlie value of flic guns and forts if wo are, in case of war, to be without efficient men to 'direct the projectiles wtfch we may have to cast at a n enemy's hostile cruisers! ? Most people, wo are afraid, will continue to believe that by some magic blundcri llg glmn|W . s Cim iu timß ot conflict become expert artillerists We are not of that opinion. It matters; not wfclihcr the calculation of *he course of a projectile is a <, lr e.v tion of trigonometry or of plain' eyesight ; what wo want is gunners who can hit at least once or twice in a dozen shots. It is more than dow,Uul whether we have them and if we have not the fault lire in want of practice. Wo have the material, but our men get very little training, and without training there can certaiJnly be no good shooting. Practice with big guns is very expcnsive-every charge of cordite and projectile running into pounds in v n luc. Hut want of practlice may cost us dearer still in the long run for there is no more use in our having guns and forts without expert artillerymen tban it was for tho Chinese to have their miles of matting. " There is no use in risking the loss of the ship for a ha'porth o' tar," so wc would say let our garrison artillery corps have plenty of practico with genuine shot' and shell, or-and We should regret the alternative-let then, be abolished altogether, as m o ,e of a delusion than «, tealityj