Ready, Aye, Ready!

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7709, 11 January 1905, Page 4

Ready, Aye, Ready!

QI'EEK STOUY FROM WELLINU- ' TON. , For vears past the public of Wei- I l.n o ton has expressed a desire to bo permitted to drive along tha shores of the harbour round Oriental Bay, Evans Bay, and Mahanga Way 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 Ueserve should be kept closed. Now, on the Defence Id-serve there are several forts, of which we hear from time to time, for the protection of the harbour. They are sacred. It happened on the afternoon of iMonday last that a party of live young men, being at Scorching Day, lelt 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 climed the hill to Fort Ballance, intending to ask permission 'to see over the: formications. Down below them, some distance to the north, were two men in uniform coming up the hill. The civilians marched on, expecting to meet the wearers of the, unit onus in the fort, but when they arrived there nobody was visible. With some trepidation they commenced to look about them, fully expecting at any moment to be called to halt by the sharp voice of the sentry, always on the alert to protect tile commerce of Wellington against surprise by a foreign cruiser. They went on uninterrupted. They examined the commander's quarters, the disappeari iug guns, and their mechanism, the i quick-tiring guns, the. ammunition, ■ the gun-pits, and the subterranean ■ ways. Nobody appeared to defend the secrets of our defences. My and . bye the civilians knew everything oil 1 by heart, and as the afternoon was getting on they yawned and saunter- - ed away to the sacred boundary, - jumped the. fence, and stood once i more on common soil. ; The question is : Who is supposed [ to protect the fortifications from es- [ pionage, 'and where was he last Mon- . day ? Here is a reserve which is ) tapu to every citizen of New Zealand, and yet absolute strangers • have roamed over the formications - at will. The live civilians who did - so on "Monday had no object ulterior t to personal curiosity, but at that r very moment there were dozens of > foreigners in Wellington, and one all : least the accredited representative of I a foreign Government. What was B to prevent them, if they felt inclined, . from picnicking on the Defence Heis serve at Fort Ballance ? It is a simple deduction that if it I is not considered necessary to protect the forts from random obseiva- , tion, the public should not be denied t the modest privilege of driving right - round the rocks road from Evans Bay to Jlahanga Bay and Seatoun. o —New Zealand Times..