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have to be done in the same hasty and imperfect manner as in 1878.
The honourable I have therefore the greatest, to address you on the subject.
And would specially urge the importance of taking in hand, in good time, the construction of the Batteries.
In the event of war, troops, ships and stores can be sent out at comparatively short notice, and barrack accommodation can be hired; but time is above all requisite in the construction.
In the reports above mentioned, and in the War Office scheme of 1880, the cost of the Batteries amounts to one fourth of the total estimate, being something under £400,000.
If it were agreed that this cost should be borne by the Colony, and the other items left to the Mother Country, the work could be done at once, irrespective of Imperial ways and means.
Would it be unfair, to ask the Colony to contribute to this expenditure on its own defence, in addition to the contribution it pays at present towards the cost of the troops?
Resident