THE DEFENCES OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7415, 25 August 1885, Page 5

THE DEFENCES OF AUCKLAND.

An officer of the Royal Navy at present in Auckland, writes In your Saturday's issue appeared a letter from Captain Hugh Stewart, R. A., on the above subject. Captain Stewart, as a groundwork for his argument, lakes Hobart Pasha's expressed views that torpedoes could not be depended upon, and thus starts a line of opinions from his point of thinking, and states that Auckland must depend upon her guns and gunners to resist a foe from anchoring in the waters of the Waitomata. Allow me to observe that Hobart Pasha, in speaking of his experiences, relates that he ran the gauntlet up rivers several times, past the line of fire of torpedoes, but that there was perfect safety for him, both above and below the position of the enemy; also, that this took place some years ago, when electric lights and iron cased submarine mines were not in the use or perfection that they are now, consequently, under these circumstances, Hobart Pasha's then ideas must now be considered out of date. I have by this last mail received a letter from an officer of high rank, now serving on board H.M. s. Minotaur, the flagship of the Channel and Experimental Fleet, and this officer is one of the committee ordered to report on the experiments. He informs me that the results have proved that an ironclad, oven aided by her electric lights, if attacked at night by six torpedo boats must be vanquished ; and, further, that in daytime in narrow waters and a slightly lumpy sea, eight first-class torpedo boats can exterminate an ironclad, as their low hulls and high speed offer no target, and they can discharge their torpedoes with the greatest accuracy within '200 yards, and that the Channel fleet have twelve of these torpedo boats with them, and seventy more building. In speaking of submarine mines, he says that experiments have proved that these mines when backed up by forts, gunboats, and torpedo vessels will render a harbour impregnable. In the event of war, Auckland would require a number of swift steam launches, fitted up as extra torpedo boats, to patrol on a given bearing, inside Tiritiri throughout the night, in order to give timely warning of the approach of an enemy, and rouse the men in the forts, by firing rockets, and these guard boats would be required to elicit satisfactory replies from every incoming steamer before allowing her to proceed. Therefore, I contend that Auckland will want something more than guns and gunners to defend it, and not as Captain Stewart would erroneously lead us to suppose."