An AucKland Fort.

Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 111, 11 May 1889, Page 4

An AucKland Fort.

[Bt Timgbaph.J {Our Own Correspondmt.} Auckland, This Dxt. With roferenoe to the utriot orders iHHueil against strangers inspeotiDg the fortifications, th« Obsorfer has taken time by the forelock, and this week publishes sketches of Fort Takapnna, whioh it declares in grossly bungled and worse than useless. The article says it ia no exaggeration to desoribe the quarters at Fort Tnkapnna, on Stark'i Ppint, as a regular "Black Hole" and a bungled bit of work that ought to bo promptly condemned. Th«» buiJding in which a number of men of the permanent foroe are housed ia nothing but hutu of undirground cells, moro damo, unwholeeomo, and cheerless than any gaol in nny oivilised country in tho world. It is located in a big hole in the ground, and ia covered by a roof of asphalt ; its windows look out upon a narrow, gloomy passago between walls of buildings and surrounding earthworks, and never a ray of sunshine ponetratos tho foul subterranean atmosphere of the rooms. Is it to bo wondered at in these circumstances that men are frequently laid up with oolds and rheumatics, oven in tho dry and mild weathor whioh we have be"n experiencing. What will it be when the heavy rains of winter como may bo better imagined than described. Tt in exposed to an opening right in tho line of fire from an invading oruisor, and if one or two sholK were landed through that opening tho result would be tho complete demolition of the men's quarters. Then in tho ovont of this fort being used to repel intruders, how is powder to bo kopt dry if stored in those damp reooptaolos. The earthworks urn already showing signs of giving way. and ultogother Fort Takapuua in as big a blunder as the Stark purohaso was.