THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1887.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8062, 1 October 1887, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1887.

On the subject of Imperial co-opera-tion in our defence arrangements, about which some correspondence has just appeared in the Herald, we are reminded by Mr. Courtney's letter on Wednesday of the works that have been undertaken by the home Government for the defence of Capetown, and he considers that. New Zealand is as well entitled as the Cape colony to this help from the Imperial Exchequer. It must not be forgotten, however, that although the Cape colony is selfgoverning as well as New Zealand, and does not tax itself for the Imperial Budget any more than we do, yet the authorities in London may have certain special reasons for taking into their own hands the fortifications of the capital of that colony. It cannot be supposed that without some such reasons any pressure on the point from the Cape Legislature, or Sir Thomas Uppington, the Premier, could get the thing done. As matter of fact, Capetown is a post of extraordinary Imperial importance. We have always in these columns expressed the opinion that the neutralisation of the Suez Canal was inevitable. It would excite a general amount of antagonism, even hostility, if an international gateway like that at Suez, or like the forthcoming one at Panama, were in time of war to be left open for military or naval purposes. Such is now the general conviction. We lately referred to the remarks of Colonel Sir Charles Nugent on the subject, in a lecture at the United Service Institute, and if the brief statement of a telegram a few days ago is to be accepted, a formal agreement to this effect between the English and French Governments is now arrived at. It was a delusion to suppose, as a few persons did at one time imagine, that the Suez Canal, on a highway between England and India, could remain equally open in times of war and peace, and consequently it was a mistake to think that the old route round the Cape of Good Hope would ever be superseded in time of war as the great maritime road between Europe and India, or the Pacific. True,' by the construction of the Canadian railway a new path has been created between Britain and her Eastern Empire, and it is not easy to overrate its importance in the event of war, for while it is much shorter than the circuitous Cape route, it has not, like the Mediterranean or Suez one, any canal question entanglements, inasmuch as it lies all the way either through British territory or theopen ocean. It is of immense value because available at all periods for the forwarding of troops and store s for India, and within little more time than would be required if they went by Suez; but being partially overland it can. only in degree supersede the voyage round the Cape, That, as a great maritime highway, will be always necessary. In a period of hostilities ships of war, and merchantmen, desiring to avoid the narrow seas, will depend on that route, and hence the peculiar and extraordinary importance of Capetown to the interests of the British Empire, constituting from its geographical position a half-way-house for military and naval service between England and her Asiatic possessions or Australasian Colonies, So strikingly obvious is the importance of the place in this way, that when the politics of the Goldwin Smith school had a certain popularity, and when the aban-

let] at ' Cai

donment of the South African Coli

was sometimes 1 hinted at, Gven b<

influential London journal, a resell 1 tion was always made for the re# 11 tion of Capetown, and the remark^ neck of land upon -which it stands!? a marine post of more value t® even Gibraltar, or Bermuda, or Hqjf kong. * ' ' 1 But. although Capetown may be lli most important of the scattered mail |osts of the empire, it does not moi p'.ise the importance ; nor is the for nation of Capetown the only exatu| \*thin the self-governing colonies! tft co-operation in this way of i luberial authorities. As Mr. Fiell

lefcr 011 Thursday reminds us, they ait I s

at he present moment acting with tfe \ CaAdian Government for the defend 0 of Etiuimault. Yes, England is to bel the pst of fortifying that va!ual|i 1 coalift "station in Vancouver's Island r and Qnada is to furnish and maintain r the prison. We never asked ai v much W Auckland, though it cab 0 scarcelybe regarded as of less cons& t quence\than Esquimi.ult, whether t looked a as a coaling depot, or for k s basis of aval operations and point ojf c observatiqt. Perhaps we were too 0 modest itionly asking and expecting „ that our 'port should be made a) t naval sta|on while <ve ourselves proceeded I construct a graving dock; > and spend vnoney on fortifying thd I harbour. Ackland has not been mads! ! a naval stalon, although the recomi mendation «is backed by men of | acknowledgecyudgment on such quest < tions. Imperil attention, when turned! to this side 0 the globe, is occupied with the Nor| Pacific. Why Be-' 1 cause Russia | the bugbear of kta! years. The Comtek has made as big afigure as the lit\e Corsicau did in our| grandfathers' da And no doubt the? Muscovite is a maace to India, though ( 110 statesman or fcrategist believes the collision possible tare for a dozen years 1 hence; and meanwhile in this era of unexpected events! who can foresee what fresh wars d, mere rumours of them and preparation may come about, —what novel charges and strange alliances and counter |liances ! What we do positively knowout here is that the Pacific is not whffi it- used to be, and may not always Co&inue to deserve its name—that all thi chief nations are establishing, or she\|their anxiety to establish, dominions iniis ocean, and that we need not now trfrel to its far northern waters to find tliir squadrons of warships. Every yearidds gravity to the claims of Auckland *3 a frontier marine post of the Empifi As His Excellency Sir William Jer*is forcibly expressed it, " New Zealas is cast like a shield in front of Australia." 1 In the Waitemata is the nahral commanding site for a naval for these Southern seas, bordered England's richest colonies, and traversed by her fleets of merchantmen. Though Mr. Courtney be wrong as to iwHat isi incumbent on tlie imperial aufiioxities in the matter of fortification, \heie is n>uch reason, for indignant feeling over the indifference they exhibit ;in the performance of their part of the buiiness — namely, as regards the real strength of the squadron appointed at a period like the present to the SouthPacific, and the arrangements needed for its efficiency.