BRITAIN'S MOTHERLY CARE OF NEW ZEALAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1909, Page 9

BRITAIN'S MOTHERLY CARE OF NEW ZEALAND.

Trf TH* BDITOK .Sir,— ln 1885, when the Russian scare was exercising tne minds of the New Zealand public, a circumstance occurred, quite unknown to the people of Uie colony or even to the Stout- Vogel Ministry of that j time. Sir Julius Vogel narrated the iol- | lowing facts to tho writer :—" When the | scare began, a British man-o'-war came i into Cook Strait one night and, having , sailed into Cable Bay, .Wakapuaka, lay | over the shoro end of tho cable. A boat ' came ashore with the officers, who commanded thb omirt. «t*fl at the station to take an oath of secrecy, which prohibited | them irom letting even the Cabinet Ministers know of the presence and movements ot the maix-o'-war. Every night; for three weeks the vessel came in and lay over the sjjore end of the cable, and at day-break went out to sea again to keep out of night of the coasting boats" -When the supposed danger was over, the cable staff were released from their oath of secrecy, arid the Now Zealand* Government were advised as to what had occurred. Ihe writer well remembers paragraphs appearing in the newspapers at the time stating that some Maons had from the •hills seen a very large strange-lookiug ship oui at sea. This was reiterated by the native's, but the large vessel did not como into sight or through the straits, so the Maoris theory was discredited and laughed at as having been imaginary. So even at that time our safety from invasion was I ensured by the communication kent up between the cable station and the* Australian Squadron, although oven tho New Zealand Government was unaware of the presence, movements, and watchful care of Her Majesty's Navy. -I am , etc., T. S. LAMBERT.