OUR DEFENCES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1367, 12 May 1898, Page 39

OUR DEFENCES.

A few days ago it was announced that the "ft anganui Chamber of Commerce had decided to approach the Government with a view to getting increased protection for the town as against privateers or cruisers in case of Britain being involved in war. It was pointed out that there are £2,000,000 worth of property to defend there, and argued that to guarantee the safety of euch an asset there should be available 200 or 300 men armed with the best of weapons and supported by two gunboats in the river and batteries at the heads. All this, which is likoly to bo generally received with derision, is really an expression of. a necessity. We shall have to vastly improve our defences if they are to be effective; if they are not there is no necessity why we should keep a lot of men in uniform and pay them to strut about the streets as mere suggestions of a defence foice. At present the British Government pays most of the cost of defensive precautions in Australasia. It ha? footed the bill for the sonstruction of the Auxiliary Squadron, and in addition maintains other squadrons to protect our commerce on the high seas. Bat this cannot go bn indefinitely. The resource?, if not the patience, of the British taxpayer will give out sooner or later, and there will inevitably be a question raised why he should be compelled to pay for protection which is, proportionately, as_ neo"3sary to us as to the people ef tte United Kingdom. HoTf fScessary it is may be indi- ,. f&fcScl by the Wanganui instance. The .£2,000,000 worth of property to be defended there cannot be taken away, it may be said. Bat it can bo destroyed. And to the owners there is not likely to be any difference between possessions removed in warships and possessions wipei out of existence by foreign guns. If that is the value of property in Wanganui, how much greater must it be in Wellington, in Auckland, or - in any other of the principal cities? What damage could not a hostile cruiser do to Wellington, for example, if she got in far enough to shell the town? These are questions which the community should seriously ask itself and endeavour to answer. There is only one way of answering them j We must either increase our defence precautions or remain at the : mercy of the destroying cruisers which an enemy might send here as the Americans sent to Manila. Reliance is pretty generally placed on the ability of the British ': navy to keep the seas clear of foreign ships. That, however, is not a safe chance to take. „ Much the wiser course is to en deavour to be ready oursolves, to recognise that the first expense is often the las*, and to take such precautions as would enable us to repel any sea hawk th it might come this way. In order to do this it will be necessary to increase the defence expend! ture, and the recent course of the Government in adding ,£25,000 to the expense tinder this head is a commendably prudent one. But it may be advisable to go much further than that. We have not the Australian advantage of what is virtually a federal scheme of defence. The Continental forces can be mobilised 'now at any time. Here we have few to mobilise, and the difficulty of getting them together would in any caSe be so great as to make aggregation almost useless. Therefore, what is wanted for our own protection is increased effort on our own part. And as showing what is to be protected, and how inefficient present precautions are, the Wanganui illustration is, as we have said, instructive.