THE FORTIFICATION COMMISSION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 344, 31 May 1877, Page 4

THE FORTIFICATION COMMISSION.

As a good deal is heard just at present of the two officers sent out from England to report on the defence of Australia, and who are likely to visit New Zealand shortly, some account of their history and accomplishments may not be uninteresting to our readers. In Men of the Time we find the following account of Sir William Jervois : "Lieut.-Col. William Francis Drummond Jervois, eldest son of the late General Jervois, Col. of the 76th Regiment, was born in 1621, and having passed at Woolwich, entered the Royal Engineers in 1839. Having completed the usual course of study at Chatham, he was ordered to the Cape of Good Hope in IS4I, and was actively employed in that Colony upwards of seven years in various capacities. In 1842 he acted as Brigade-Major in an expedition against the Boers, and during the three following years, was professionally engaged at various frontier stations, making roads, building bridges, &c. In 1845, having been appointed Acting Adjutant to the Royal Engineers, he accompanied the Chief Engineer over the whole frontier of the Cape Colony and the settlement of Natal, and in the early part of 1846 he was Major of Brigade to the garrison of Cape Town, until the arrival of Sir B. Pottinger as. Governor, and Sir G. Berkeley as Commanderin - Chief, with whom he proceeded to the frontier against the Kaffirs. Daring the Kaffir war he made a military survey and map of Kaffraria, a work of great difficulty ably executed. From 184S to 1852 he commanded a company of Sappers at Woolwich and Chatham, in the latter year was ordered to the island of Alderney for the purpose of designing plans for the fortifications, airl the superintendence of their execution, and in 1854 was promoted to the rank of major. In 1855 Major Jervois was tranferred to the London district, as Commanding Royal Engineer, and was nominated by Lord Panmure a member of a Committee on barrack accommodation, whose labors contributed much to the improvements ■which have of late years taken place in the construction of barracks, as well as in sanitary condition of our troops. In 1856 he was appointed to the post of Assistant Inspector-General of Fortifications, under Sir John Burgoyne, and on the appointment of a Royal Commission to report upon the defences of the country, he "was selected by the Government to be secretary. He was a member of the Special Committee on the application of iron to ships and fortifications. In 1861 he attained the rank of Lieut.-Col., in 1862 was appointed Deputy Director of Fortifications under Sir John Burgoyne. and in 1563 was nominated a Companion of the Bath, and was sent on a Special Commission to report on the defences of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, on which occasion he visited the fortifications at the principal ports on the seaboard of the United States. In 1864, he was again sent on a special mission to Canada to confer wifcii the Canadian Government on the question of the de-fence of the Province. On his return to England, his repoit was laid before Parliament, an 1 the Imperial Government undertook to cany out the defences of Quebec on the plan recommended by him. In addition to his post at the War Office, Col. Jervois is Secretary to the Defence Committee, under the presidency of H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge."