MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARDS' REPORT ON OUR DEFENCES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8636, 23 November 1889, Page 3

MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARDS' REPORT ON OUR DEFENCES.

The report of Major-General Edwards has, says the Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Herald, reached the hands of the Premier, but it cannot engage the deliberation of tho Cabinet until it shall have been laid before the Governor of the Colony in his official capacity. It should be remembered that the report is by an Imperial officer, acting by the orders of the Imperial authorities, and can only in official course be submitted to the Governor as representing Her Majesty. For the present the New Zealand Government is merely the medium through which the report passes. No doubt the Governor will submit the report to his " responsible advisers," and then only will it be for the first time discussed. Whether it will be public is not known, but it is probable, seeing that the reports on the Australian defences wore published, no objection will be made in the present case when the proper time in the opinion of the Government shall have arrived. There are sundry rumours about the contents of the report. A good deal of it appears to have leaked out, but it is said there are special features in this report which make it of a more confidential nature than those relating to the defences of the other colonies. It is even hinted that there are questions of large political significance behind and connected with this document, which would make it desirable for the Premier to confer with the Governor.