CO885(3-4) — Page 448

Action taken in Tasmania.

Western Australia,

North Australia,

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in preventing an advance upon the town, should an enemy succeed in throwing a small force or shore.

18. Besides the provision for works and armaments, an annual expenditure, estimated for 1879-80 at 6,8951, is incurred for military forces. A volunteer force numbering 1,000 officers and men, a portion of which consists of artillery, the rest of infantry, has been organized; a cadet corps, numbering 300 boys, has also been formed. A capitation allowance of 11. per man per annum is allowed to the volunteers; and arms, ammunition, and accoutrements, drill sheds and rifle ranges are supplied to the force at the public expense.

19. In Tasmania the Legislature passed an Act voting 25,0001. for the defensive works, armaments, torpedoes, &c., recommended in my Report of February 1878, but as yet only about one-fifth of that sum has been expended upon defences. The batteries for the defence of Hobart Town are in course of construction, and it is stated that arrange- ments are about to be made for the purchase of armaments, including field-guns and warlike stores, required in addition to the supplies which are already in the Colony.

20. Besides the capital sum of 25,000l., there is an annual vote-amounting this year to 6,411. 178.-for expenses connected with the military defences of the Colony. This sum, however, includes 1,8691. 7s. 6d. for a small permanent force of twenty non- commissioned officers and men, and for a torpedo corps of twelve non-commissioned officers and men, neither of which has as yet been formed.

21. A volunteer force, numbering altogether 768 officers and men, partly artillery and partly infantry, has, however, been organized, and is under the command of a Lieutenant-Colonel in the regular army, with the local Imperial rank of Colonel. The officers of the force receive a yearly capitation grant of 51., and non-commissioned officers and men of 2, 10s. Arms, ammunition, and accoutrements are provided at the public expense.

22. As to Western Australia, I have never visited that Colony, and I understand that the present Governor, Major-General Sir Harry Ord, who is a retired officer of the Royal Engineers, has reported to you on its defences. I may, however, offer some remarks with reference to King George's Sound, a fine harbour which occupies a very important position near the south-west cape of this continent. It is the first port in Australia at which the outward, and the last at which the homeward, mail-steamers call, and has hitherto been used as a coaling station by the steamers of the Peninsula and Oriental Company. Seeing the importance of King Georg's Sound, and that, in the absence of defences, hostile vessels might occupy it, and issuing therefrom, damage our commerce, a proposal has been several times made to construct a fort and supply torpedoes for its protection. Doubtless, apart from the question of expense and of the embarrassment that might arise from stationing a garrison in this very detached position, such a course might be desirable. Regarded purely from a military point of view, a fortified harbour at the south-west point of Australia would be a good base of action for British cruizers. It seems scarcely probable, however, that the Imperial Government will adopt the proposal, and I understand that the Colony is not prepared to incur the expense of providing and manning the projected defences. Under all circumstances, therefore, it would appear that King George's Sound must depend for its defence upon the general protection which Her Majesty's ships may be able to afford to the highways of British commerce.

23. It may be observed that the power of any hostile vessel occupying the harbour to inflict injury upon our trade, would be in a great measure neutralized if no coal were kept at the Sound. The Peninsular and Oriental Company, indeed, now only keep a small stock there to meet cases of emergency. It is, no doubt, most convenient, in the interests of Western Australia and for keeping up communication with that Colony, that the mail steamers should continue to call there, but as regards coaling there, no such necessity now exists. The steam-ships of the "Orient" line now steam the whole way from Adelaide to Aden without coaling, and the Peninsular and Oriental vessels run to and fro without coaling between Adelaide and Ceylon.

24. It should be noticed that in North Australia there are many fine harbours :— Port Darwin, Port Essington, Queen Charlotte Sound, and others, within the territory under the Government of South Australia; Cambridge Gulf, King's Sound, and others, within the boundary of Western Australia. The only district, however, of this part of the continent in which there is as yet any population, is about Port Darwin, where is ⚫ situated the town of Palmerston, the seat of Government for the northern territory of South Australia. In this territory there is now a population of about 500 Europeans and 3,000 Chinese. There are, I understand, abundant resources there, and some efforts are being made to turn them to account. It appears from recent explorations, that the northern portion of Western Australia also is a very fine country for settlement. Although

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the observation may not be quite relevant to the subject of this Report, I may remark that, at-no distant day, it may be desirable that the northern parts of South Australia and Western Australia should be formed into one new Colony. With its fine harbours and rivers, its mineral resources, and its capability for growing cotton, indigo, sugar, coffee, maize, &c., such a Colony might, I believe, under a Government experienced in the management of tropal countries, become one of the most important of the Australian provinces. In this event, its situation would seem to point to its becoming a station for Her Majesty's ships. As yet, however, this part of Australia is so thinly peopled, and its settlement is so little advanced, that the question of its defence is scarcely one for practical consideration at the present time.

25. With respect to defences for New Zealand, I was about to proceed there in New Zealand. December 1877, when I was informed by Lord Normanby, then Governor of that Colony, that his Ministers did not wish for any report from me on the subject. During my stay in London in the spring of 1878, on being requested by the Committee on Colonial Defences then sitting, to afford them any information in my power respecting defences for New Zealand, I handed to the Committee an old Report on defences of harbours there, which I remembered having given to Sir Julius (then Mr.) Vogel, when he visited England several years ago during the time I was in the War Office. The estimated cost of the recommendations contained therein was about 44,000. It should be observed that the only data which I had to go upon, in furnishing this Report, were the charts of the harbours, and that I had no local information whatever respecting them.

26. Shortly before I left London, at the end of June 1878, I was given to under- stand that the New Zealand Government had agreed to the suggestions made in the Report referred to, but Sir Hercules Robinson, the present Governor, after receiving from me your telegram of the 22nd August last, telegraphed to me that his Ministers had only determined on purchasing "the guns recommended by the Home Committee, intending to await Colonel Scratchley's arrival before moving further." Colonel Scratchley, that no arrangement has yet been made for his visiting the Colony.

I understand, however, from 27. With regard to the military forces of the Australian Colonies generally, the Remarks with permanent artillery of New South Wales and Victoria are very efficient, and the volunteers reference to the in all the Colonies are fine bodies of men, capable of making, as some are already, military forces in excellent troops. In New South Wales, where many improvements have been carried Colonies. out during the last two years, a system of continuous training has, as I have already stated, been adopted. And in South Australia the volunteers are so frequently called together by day for drill and exercise, that their practice may in effect be said to be con- tinuous. These troops are indeed more a volunteer militia than ordinary" volunteers," and great credit is due to them for the degree of efficiency to which they have attained. other Colonies, however, I understand that the usual practice of the volunteers is to drill in sheds, after dusk, and, as I have stated in previous Reports, some days continuous training by daylight is necessary for their efficiency as a military force. At the same time,

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it is only their due to recognize the public spirit they display, in employing their time, their energies, and in many cases their money, in the service of the State. It will be observed that there is a great diversity in the organization of the forces in the several Colonies, and it would no doubt be preferable that one uniform system should be adopted. Owing, however, to the absence of Federal Government, and to the Legislature of each Colony being entirely independent of the others, there appears to be very little probability of unity of action in this respect. The absence of unity of organization is not, however, of so much consequence as might at first appear, for the capitals of the Colonies being at distances from 600 to 1,800 miles apart, the force from one province could not be detached, for the benefit of another, to the prejudice of its own defence. Each force is avowedly only intended to suffice for the protection of the Colony to which it belongs, and the land forces will not require to be concentrated, unless joint action were to be taken by two or more Colonies to supply a military contingent for the general service of the Empire-a project which can only be contemplated as looming in the far distant future, when popula tion has greatly increased, and federation has been accomplished.

Australian

28. To turn now to the subject of naval defences. Amongst the defensive measures Naval Defences. requisite for each Colony, in order to render it as far as possible complete in its arrange- ments for security against aggression, the providing of vessels of war necessarily forms a very important element. Whilst, however, the more obvious course, under present circumstances, is to deal with the land defences of the several Colonies separately, it would no doubt, as to naval defences, be far preferable, if practicable, to treat of them as a whole.

29. But a difficulty presents itself at the outset in regarding the matter from a federal Naval Force of point of view, owing to the fact that Victoria, the most populous of the Australian Victoria.

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

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PÚBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON |

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