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NETHERLANDS.
The Bay of Batavia, between the Point Ontong Java on the west, and Krawang Point on the east, Appendix No. 9. is 21 miles in width, and between the lines joining those points it is 8 miles in depth; the protection afforded by the bay cannot, therefore, be very great, but is increased by a number of islands, which, in most directions, break any dangerous swell. The soundings are from 10 to 4 fathoms, regularly shoaling towards the shore, and generally throughout the bay 3 fathoms will be found at the distance of a mile from the beach. The roads may be considered as very safe, for, although ships roll con- siderably in the strength of the western monsoon, and are, consequently, compelled to strike top-gallant masts and yards, no danger is to be apprehended from driving, from the excellence of the holding- ground. The numerous islands lie chiefly in the north-western and northern portion of the bay; the north-eastern portion has none for several miles. There are also several minor rocks and shoals. The approaches, without entering into detail, may be said to demand considerable caution, which must be increased when the beacons are removed, but present no insuperable difficulties to steamers. The facilities for discharging cargo have, until recently, not been great. The usual anchorage is 5 kilom. from the landing-place, 3.150 metres of this distance being made up of the canal and piers, which extend beyond the beach into the sea, but this channel is with difficulty kept at a depth of 6 feet by constant use of the steam dredger. In certain seasons the violence of the wind and the habitual state of the sea is such as to render very difficult, sometimes even impossible, the loading and unloading of the ships in the harbour, and the length of time, even in favourable weather, occupied in going and returning by the lighters is such that it is said two steamers unloading at the same time exhaust their carrying powers. In consequence of these difficulties the principal naval establishments have been located on the islands in the bay, but a more efficient remedy is in course of formation in the new artificial harbour at Tanjong Priok, a spit about 5 miles to the east of the old piers.
The full pro- posal is to construct an outer harbour little short of a mile in length, and from 600 to 1,000 yards in width, formed by two artificial breakwaters of a total length of 4,000 yards, deepened within these limits to nearly 28 feet; an inner harbour 1,000 yards long by 200 yards wide, deepened to nearly 25 feet. Docks also are proposed, but a difficulty, not yet arranged, has arisen on this point: that the Government have granted a dock monopoly to a private Company, the same which has brought out the dock already mentioned on Amsterdam Island, for over eighty years, and they hold that the new Government docks are an infringement of their rights. In addition to the outer and inner harbours there is to be a railway, canal, and road connecting the new port with the old town of Batavia.
Considerable progress has been made. Great steam-dredgers, capable of digging 2,000 cubic metres per hour are at work; huge quantities of stone have been shipped from the Trapp Rock quarries at Merak, in the Straits of Sunda, and piles are being driven in the inner harbour; the quay walls are to be fixed with Portland cement brought from Europe. At the latest reports the break- waters were well advanced; there was 21 feet of water in the outer harbour, in the inner harbour 11 feet. The communications were finished and the quays pretty forward. The works were originally intended to be complete in 1885, but expectations are expressed that they will be finished as early as 1883. It is hoped by this more convenient port near the Straits of Sunda to draw away con- siderable traffic from Singapore, and an agitation has already commenced for the removal of the various establishments on Onrust, and the other islands in the bay, which are pronounced indefensible, in a modern sense, to the neighbourhood of the new port.
The following are the principal public and private establishments of military and naval interest in or near Batavia:-At Onrust, Kuiper, Purmerend, Amsterdam Islands, there are various naval establishments. There is 24 feet of water alongside the jetty at Onrust, a dry dock, dimensions not known, and every convenience for refitting a ship; there is said to be a small private dock for vessels of 7 feet draught, and another is mentioned in the Baroe River at Batavia, but this also must be small. The establishment, however, of the great new harbour, renders the details of these small docks of little importance. Onrust possesses powerful cranes, a sail loft, steam lathes, steam saw-mill, steam hammer, smitheries, and a foundry, and boiler-works are proposed to be added. Without the crews of Govern- ment ships Onrust, &c., employs from 1,200 to 1,600 men. Many of these are convicts, probably because of the unhealthiness of the island; this is attributed to the land-wind, which sets in at mid- night and brings off the pestilential air of the shore marshes. There are coal-warehouses at Batavia, but they are not mentioned as Government depôt in the Budget.
In Old Batavia, or inmediate suburbs, are the marine magazine, clothing magazine, water distil- lery, for sale of water to the ships. There are several artesian wells in Batavia, powder magazine, two large private firms-Willem III and another-employing more than 100 men each, for manufacture of steam-engines and iron-work.
In Weltewreden nearly all the administrative head offices of the army and navy, the laboratory, arsenal and depôt of artillery.
In Meister Cornelis, another powder magazine, the schools for small-arms armourers, military school, &c.
Fortifications and Defences of Batavia.
The maritime position: this was the name formerly given to the defences on the islands of Onrust, &c., but in 1872 the position was disclassed; in 1873 the Government made a grant for the renoval of the batteries and towers on Onrust, which were to be removed and demolished; and with regard to the towers on the other islands, if they could not be utilized for other purposes, the yearly grant for their maintenance was to be stopped; there appears to be no prospect of this decision being revoked. The old writers frame various schemes for strengthening this position and supplementing it by the fire of the fleet taking refuge between the islands, but the formation of the new harbour alters the situation. These islands are too distant from Tanjong Priok to enter into any general scheme of defence, of the whole bay, there is, in fact, several miles of open water between Krawang Point and any island in the bay, and if Batavia is to be defended, it will be by the strand batteries, in combination with, perhaps,
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