FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22210, 10 September 1935, Page 6

FIFTY YEARS AGO

EXPENDITURE ON DEFENCE MISGIVINGS OF COLONISTS The constant increases in defence expenditure and the erection of extensive fortifications at the main ports were causing some uneasiness half a century ago. In spite of the threat of war with Russia and of friction through the encroachment of other nations in the Pacific, the expense of the defensive measures being taken was viewed with alarm, as is shown by the following extract from the New Zealand Herald of September 10, 1885: |'At a well-attended meeting at Dunedin last evening a resolution was passed that uneasiness be expressed at the amount of money proposed to be expended on the defences of the colony, and that the Government bo asked to curtail the same and consider the desirability of countermanding orders sent to England for heavy guns, ammunition, etc.

"It, was also considered that the volunteer force, having now been established 22 years and being fairly efficient and capable of being still moro so, could, if properly organised, defend the colony in case of attack. The continued employment of the Armed Constabulary for purposes of defence could, it was stated, only be regarded as tending toward the creation of a standing army that would bo highly repugnant to tho wishes of tho colonists and a burden which New Zealand in its present depressed state could not bear."