CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXXI, Issue 7048, 9 October 1900, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

DEFENCE.

TO THB EDITOB.

Sir, — Many of your readers are glad to see in your leaders of late that you object to all this war expenditure, under the name of " defence," and also that Mr Atkinson takes much the same view. The root evil is that tho war spirit has taken hold of the people, and it wants to find vent in some way. If, then, something must be done, it were better to make further contributions to the British Navy, for there is our defence, than to spend money on cannon^ rapidly becoming obsolete, or on a half-* trained soldiery. But there is another [ proposal of the Premier in this respect which is much to be regretted, that is, to use the Mount Cook site in Wellington for defence purposes, whatever they may mean. Does .he want a fort there to keep the Wellingtonians in awe ? If it is only barracks he wants, a less prominent site would be better. The noblest use to which the finest site in the city can be put is to devote it to education and give it to the university. Nothing could be better for a young, free country than to make its educational institutions the most prominent, and keep gaols and barracks as much out of sight as possible. I think there is a petition in Hawera, requesting the Government to give the Mount Cook site to the university, and the 'attention of the public should' be drawn to it as a very important matter. — I am, etc., Geo. H. Maundee.

8/10/00.