THE DEFENCE OF THE DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 492, 27 April 1909, Page 4

THE DEFENCE OF THE DOMINION OF NEW ZEALAND.

Seeing there is such a large amount of : ■surplus'Tnonevdn the Dominion at tlio.' present :^t<^able:'our,Prime Minister' to lavish 000,000,0n .the.presentation,of.-'d Dreadnought- to.'tho Mother Country,'; it seems to mo to:be a very opportune .time for our Council. - 110 .pot. in.'a requisition for a. ±4,000,000 for coastal and land defonco purposes.; With our.. shor'o' fronts' bristling ivith" up-to-date guns, .well'niamiedj backed up by compulsory training of all able-Tiodiecl men between, the ages of 17 and 30, in a very sliort time wo,would be in a position to "put up suph a strong coastal, and internal': dcfoitce that any ambitious invader "would consider it a very serious undertaking to attempt a land--ing on our shores. If our-Prime Minister has any honest intention of. assisting the. Mother Country, he could render lier more valuable aid by attending to our. own defence, than by the presentation of a Dreadnought. Under our present system of defence, we have no system of organisation, no transport, and no commissariat. Under pur present system, an attempt-to mobilise our force for war would result in a dismal failure, the whole thing ' is as it is at present constituted an .absolute rarce/ and if placed on trial -.'would break down ' lii loss than a week, aiid. the,force become a. huge starved rabble of undisciplined men. ■ : It- is no'use disguising the fact that we are living m a' "fool's paradise." Tho'burlesque Easter " encampments ! that" are ' held are a shocking - oxample of tho incompetency of the so-callwl district state's, men 'who are receiving high salaries to impart instruction, which in many - cases 1 ' they 'are too- incompetent to. give. , ; As we must have paid officers, to -impart instruction at these emcamp-nients,-vwd 'mustj.' therefore, insist on having ' omcevs of the highest repute and/proficiency to impart the necessary knowledge, why not have highly qualified Imperial 'officers to lttipart military instruction until .such time ■as our own New Zealand officers qualify thomselves for the high, and responsible position they must ultimately command. 'By s6 doing, we once restore confidence ni'tho rank and file, they would: put more enthusiasm into their training, - and we' would .ceaso to hear tho maiiy; expressions of discontent and disgust so prevalent at tho Waster camps'. v.. fj r, 'k is wry common knowledge, that , in the event of Britain being engaged in a iiaval war.with a hostile, European power r Mew Zealand,'.beiiig-so far removed : from the base of operations,, would be' left ; entirely on its own' resources,, and at tho mercy of aij. Asiatic Power with a few second-class battleships, to land - at their leisure, not necessarily in" Wellington or Auckland j there are dozens of other--places t-o bo found moi-p' suitable for their pur- i pose.- A; few thousand well-trained soldiers i landed; on any. part of Qtir coast-lino, could i make its base secure before )ve, under our '• •present system, of -unpreparedness, ' could I mobilise and show '■ a lighting front. 1 Con- i sternation and confusion would reign su- ; Pfomo, arid wo would bo driven back iiito the -i back country, whidJi would be au enemy's <

inam object. Once ho drove us back into our , back country, his object would bo ob- . taiued, for the back country of Now , Zealand would not support even a r New Zealand forco for many weeks , on a war foo-tiajg, thoi invader holding tho sea front could laugh at our efforts to i dislodge him, and the end would bo our own t subjection through starvation, which would , be brought . about through our own shortsightedness in not compelling the Government to placojour defence force oa a'secure .basis wlhnd tliero is_ time to do so, by training 'every able-bodied ' man and instituting a ■ .thoroughly • sound system of organisation, transport, and commissariat. - •Wo a-ro given to understand that the most likely form of an attack on New Zealand will be m the nature of a raid. Granted thi3 to bs &o, what steps can wo tako under our prcsystem t-o repel a raid, a raiding forco could lay waste to a considerable portion of our country before our forces could bo mobilised. Take, for instance, one branch of tho volunteer servicc, the field artillery." How aro the guns going to bo horsed in an emerIt appears to mo'that great difficulty is experienced by the artillery in New Zealand in obtaining horses at their peace trainings to carry out 'their gun work. , Wo can only' imagine what would actually happen m case-of a raid taking place. While our artillsry. I understand that the sum total of. field guns m New Zealand is 18, a-nd olio battery in particular has only, two guns, and, i!° Pi one of these guns will notshoot straight, and is' generally useless for shooting purposes—a nice weapon to repel a raid with. .... In conclusion, sir, while I fully appreciate tl'e. noblo spirit of Sir Joseph Ward in his desire to present the Mother Country with a battleship, I maintain that we could show our patriotism to far greater advantage and at the. same time- strengthen tho, hand of England by expending half the money on our own coastal and land, defences. By doing so wo' would be rendering a sorvico far greater for.the maintenance of'the.integrity of this portion of.tho. Empire than-tho presentation of a Dreadnought could possibly affect.—l am, etc., . . .' ■ . ~n) , ■ v ' J/M'KENZIE. . . April 24. ' , i