THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1904

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume IV, Issue 1143, 12 November 1904, Page 2

THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1904

Horo shall tho I're.'s tho t'ooplo'n Bhflit muntaii Ummul by nifluonoo utiil unbribeil by j»in; Horo patriot Truth liar slcnons prccojits 'lrm> Flcdwlto Rolidon Liberty, «ii(] Law

When the foreigner comes to bombard Now Zealand ho will come sailing fitraight up either the Auckland or Wellington harbour, and get blown up with :i submarine mine. He will not try to get into Lyttelton or Port Ohalmes, because there are no mines there. Last week the New Zealand Parliament explained to the world and to any spies now in the colony that New Zealand is defended in patches, and that some of the richest patches are as free to foreign fleets as " the flowers that bloom in the spring," The Defence Office is apparently anxious to act as pilot to the foreigner. It invites the enemy to come and be killed, and to please pick Auckland or Wellington, because it has forgotten to initio the ocean bottom anywhere else. The fleets are sure to respect tho warning out of love and affection for our forge! fulness, A sketch-plan of the minefields of the colony, together with a detached survey of the forts, should be posted to each of the Gieat Powers. It would amplify Ihe already excellent information given in the House during the Defence discussion. The average citizen, who cannot leli a initio from a potato paicli, is not to be let into defence sectets. The foils am closed lo everyone. For an M.11.R, or oilier undesirable or suspicious character to see the nose of a gun slicking out would be disastrous*, bill for the nice, well.mannered con - vicis who am taken to the forts to work, to see the same thing is perfectly legitimate. No convict would think of selling defence secrets, but Iho sinful traveller might. Defence secrets, the position of miiHi.ehl.-i, a list of Iho undefended ports, the supply of ammunition, the number of t mops, etc., is information that should be openly discussed, anil phamplels I hereon circulated in China. Japan, Russia, France, and Germany. Seriously, however, we believe that the possession of this defence information by all Ihe Powers in th'e world scarcely matters. Any Power could .play the mischief: with our mines in a day. But I what is paradoxical is the dissemination of this kind of information,

and the military sternness that pro. I hibils the enjoj meiit of nature by the people because (there are a few guns hidden on the top of a hill. We take ourselves and our guns too seriously at times, and hold them too cheaply at other times. Mr Seddon, who as Minister of Defence knows everything in connection with tbe matter, said a few clays ago that " we could sweep an invading army into tho sea in twenty-four hours," the presumption being that if the navy thought of Lyttelton or port Chalmers as a landing place we would wire a few submarine mines down as the enemy was coming up the stream. In any case there is danger, duly marked and known to all, in coming into either of two ports in New Zealand.