WELLINGTON ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 9428, 1 June 1891, Page 6

WELLINGTON ITEMS.

[from our own correspondent.] WELLINGTON, May 31. THE SYLLABUS. The amended regulations of the syllabus are being printed, and will soon be out. midland railway. Regarding the Midland Railway deviation, which has been so long the subject of public discussion, and of negotiations between the Cabinet and tho Railway Company, there is every prospect, I learn, of a settlement in a few days, to the satisfaction and relief of all parties concerned. Ministers, in point of fact, are, I understand, perfectly prepared to accept the documentary evidence I mentioned in a recent message as sufficient to bring the contract entered into by Mr Wilson with the Grey Council within the category of things satisfactory. THE CAPTURE OP WELLINGTON. The Volunteers here are generally disgusted at the results of the practice on the Queen's Birthday. I believe the reason chiefly to be because the attacking force captured the city without being suspected to be in the neighbourhood. Before that force went out. Captain Fairchild, of the Hinemoa, declared that he would throw the troops unperceived within striking distance of the town, the rest to depend on themselves. He landed them at Palliser Bay, out of sight from the Heads, and on the opposite side of the harbour to that which the defending force occupied. Having landed the men, he steamed into view to lull suspicion. The defenders went through their movements with great credit and immense precision, and the invaders marched the while by an inland route to Lawry Bay, where they cut off telephonic communication and seized the excursion steamer Mana, arriving at the wharf at five o’clock, being stowed away among the excursionists. They, of course, passed Port Ballanee unnoticed, and did not draw the fire of the Ngahauranga and Kaiwarra batteries. It has been pointed out that in war such a termination to an invasion would bo impossible, and it has been added that, to seize an excursion steamer is the same thing as seizing the horses and carriages of spectators at a manoeuvre campaign. Of course the main point is that the attacking force got to Lowry Bay unperceived. Where the shoe pinches further is that it might have marched round to Wellington without raising any alarm which would have summoned the defenders from the coastline in time to save the city. The incident points to a change in the arrangements of these manoeuvre campaigns in future, a system of look-out which shall see the whole coast; a guard left in town; organised communication between that guard as a centre, and the defenders disposed along the coast. That would be a complete military combination. It is a combination which requires elaboration and study at all the four centres, and, from what I can learn, will be an accomplished fact by the next occasion of a display. It is only fair to add that tho change in the arrangements at the eleventh hour prevented such a combination on the Queen's Birthday. The original intention was to exercise the infantry and field artillery in coast defence on a certain line, and the Navals at the forts and mine fields. All that work was admirably done. The attack from the seaward was an afterthought, which ought to have led to an entire change of programme, and did not. THE EDWARDS CASE. The Government, I understand, has made up its mind to officiate in the Edwards case. THE AGENT-GENERALSHIP. A rumour is going about here, very circumstantially stating that Sir W. Jervois has intimated to the Government that if the conditions as to salary are acceptable he will take the Agent-Generalship. Ministers profess ignorance.