AN UNPROTECTED FORT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12759, 9 January 1905, Page 6

AN UNPROTECTED FORT.

NO PRECAUTIONS AGAINST SPIES. SOME QUERIES FOR THE DEFENCE DEPARTMENT. [BY TET.KGRAPH. — OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington', Saturday. The Times to-day publishes a curious account of the adventures of five young men who on Monday last explored, without interruption, the fortifications at Fort Ballance. For years past the public of Wellington have expressed a desire to be permitted to drive along the shores of the. harbour round Oriental Bay, Evans' Bay, and Mahanga Bay to Seatoun. Representations have been made to the Minister for Defence, over and over again, but always the same reply has been given, namely, that it. is 'necessary, for military reasons, that the road through the defence reserve should be kept closed. It happened on the afternoon of Monday last, says the Times, that a party of five young men being at Scorching Bay, folt a desire to examine the scene of the recent gun accident. They trekked north and entered the sacred reserve. There was nobody to stop them, and they climbed the hill to Fort Ballance, intending to ask permission to sec over the fortifications. Down below them some distance to the north were two men in uniform. Coining up the hill the civilians marched on, expecting to meet the wearers of the uniforms in the fort, but when they arrived there nobody was visible. With sorno trepidation they commenced to look about, them, fully expecting at any moment to be called to halt by tho sharp voice of tho sentry always on the alert to protect the commerce of Wellington against surprise by a foreign cruiser. They went on uninterrupted. They examined the commodore's quarters, the disappearing guns and their mechanism, the quick-firing guns, the ammunition, the gun pits, and the subterranean ways. Nobody appeared to defend the secrets of our defences. By-and-by the civilians knew everything off by heart, and as the afternoon was getting on they yawned and sauntered away to the sacred boundary, jumped the fence, and stood once more on common soil. The Times asks the question : Who is supposed to protect the fortifications from espionage, and where was lie- last Monday? Here is a reserve which is " tapu" to every j citizen of New Zealand, and yet absolute strangers have roamed over the fortifications at will. The five civilians who did so on Monday had no object ulterior to personal curiosity, but at that very moment there were dozens of foreigners in Wellington, and one at least the accredited representative of a foreign Government. What was to prevent them, if they felt inclined, from picnicking on the defence reserve tit Fort Ballance? It is a simple- deduction that if it is not considered necessary to protect the forts from random observation the public should not be denied the modest privilege of driving right round the rocks road from Evans' Bay to Mahanga Bay and Seatoun.