The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1884. THE DEFENCES OF THE COLONY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1808, 8 October 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1884. THE DEFENCES OF THE COLONY.

His Excellency the Govornor delivered a carefully prepared lecture last Satu# day evening on the defences of the colony, which will be discussed from one end of the colony to the other with considerable interest. There are many points in the course of His Excellency's address which, are outside general criticism, simply because Sir William Jervois is an authority upon them, and the public and the Press ate not. We have no doubt that His Excellency's views on naval stations and depots, on the best bases for defence, on the probable nature of attacks, and on plans of defences generally, can be accepted as thoroughly reliable. The aspect of the question on which outsiders, who are not military experts can express ao opinion, is the cost of his defence proposals. His Excellency puts the amount down at 1400,000, and looking at this sum from a business point of view, we would ask " is the game worth the candle," It may be fairly assumed that an estimate of. L 400,000 means au expenditure of half-a million, or an annual addition to our permanent debt charges of L 25,000. It may also be considered that as the defences would require to be maintained, the possible cost of them might amount to L 50,000 a year. Can we afford L 50,000 a year for a presumably efficient system of colonial defences. We pay possibly a larger sum than this per annum as an insurance against 6re, and defence expenditure might be regarded in tbe light of an insurance. But then the amount, we pay for fire risks is an absolute guarantee against the loss of the sums for which we are insured, and can we say the same of the proposed colonial defences 1 Would they be an absolute safeguard against foreign attack or invasion 1 We fear not I If every hole is not stopped through which a hostile fox could creep, the insurance money paid would not be of much avail. Our tronfc doors might be vigilantly guarded, but foreign powers would be well aware of this, and would, in the event of war, go for some back door or scullery window. Sir William Jervois himself admits that an enemy might land in th 6 vicinity of a town, but his plans for defence do not cover seaport suburbs, His protective works at Wellington, for example, command the Wellington harbor. Assuming that these were erected in' accordance with.his plans, we 'can imagine that a hostile vessel would fight shy-of the harbor. It might, however, an hour or two before dawn land a few hundred armed men in the Porirua Bay, who could march into Wellington before the citizens of the Empire City were out of their beds and take possession of the town and of its protective works. The strength-of a chain is the strength of its weakest link, and the value of a scheme of colonial defences is to be gauged, not by its big batteries, but by its weakest points. We may spend half a million

of money and yet be open to attack. < New Zealand is not as yet a treasure house—indeed, it is hardly worth robbing. A banker who has a' few thousand pounds of gold in his safe, is careful to lock and bar it in the most approved fashion, but the humble colonist, with possibly two-and-four-pence in his whare, does not consider it worth while to even fasten his door. If New Zealand goes in for defensive works, it will be assumed that the colony is worth robbing. If, on the other hand, it makes no attempt to construct batteries, it will be thought that we are poverty stricken. No doubt in the event of a war, a cruiser might come into a colonial harbor and call round at the banks and collect any coined metal that might be available, but this contribution would not amount to a great many thousands of pounds, and it would be better to grin and bear the possibility of such a visit than to pay half a million for the chance of resisting it.