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The burgher lists shall be in the form annexed to the Act, in order to enable the Government to select from the list such burghers as they deem fit to be entrusted with

arms.

In case a portion only of the burgher force be called out, substitutes are allowed. The Volunteer Bill provides for greater effectiveness in the volunteer forces, and gives power to the Governor, acting by and with the advice of the Executive Council, to call out the volunteers for service in any part of the Colony. Provision is, however, made for relieving volunteers after a reasonable term of service, and it will of course rest with the volunteers themselves to arrange by their internal regulations how such reliefs may be best provided, and also to settle, by ballot or otherwise, the order in which men shall serve.

In time of active service the Articles of war shall apply to the volunteers as well as to all other Colonial forces.

It is proposed to form the volunteers into battalions, and to appoint one of the field-officers to assist the Commandant-General of Colonial Forces generally in his dealings with the forces. Regulations as to the management of the different corps shall be hereafter laid before Parliament. The Bill for the remodelling of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police is a consolidation of various Acts regulating that force, which hence- forth is to be designated "The Cape Mounted Rifles." There are some alterations in the powers given by the repealed Acts, as, for instance, in the enactment which enabled dismissal without appeal. By the proposed Act, every sentence of dismissal will be subject to the approval of the Governor or Commander-in-Chief of the Colonial forces.

The new force will be divided into two wings, each under the control of competent officers, and no promotion can take place until test examination has been passed.

The new force will be available for military as well as civil duties.

No. 148.

Admiral Sir A. Milne, G.C.B., to Colonial Office.

(Secret and Confidential.) Sir,

Committee Room, Whitehall, May 31, 1878.

I AM requested by the Colonial Defence Committee to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd May,* transmitting a copy of a letter from Mr. Kennelly, having reference to the port of Louisburg, Cape Breton.

The Committee have carefully considered the representations of Mr. Kennelly, as contained in his letter of the 18th May,† and repeated verbally at an interview on the 27th instant, in which he favoured the Committee with his views in detail.

The most important fact relating to Louisburg is that owing to its position on the south-east coast of Cape Breton, the harbour, like that of Halifax, remains open during the winter months at a time when Sydney and other ports are closed with ice. It is also connected by railway with the coal-fields and with Sydney, where, at the present time, the whole of the coal raised in Cape Breton is shipped.

It is intended, with the assistance of this railway, which has only lately been completed, to make Louisburg a coaling port; but the necessary wharves have not yet been built, and as yet no store of coal has been accumulated there.

It may be mentioned that at the time of the French occupation Louisburg was strongly fortified. It was captured by a combined sea and land attack, after a siege of forty-four days in 1745, after which the fortifications were razed and have never since been reconstructed.

The population consists only of fishermen, who inhabit the site of the old town, but there are no commercial establishments nor buildings of consequence on the shores of the harbour.

Under these circumstances the Committee are of opinion that it is unnecessary to provide any special means for its defence at the present time, although some defence may become desirable hereafter, should the expectations above referred to be realized.

It would be sufficient for the present not to encourage the formation of any consider- able depôt of coal. The railway has, however, some bearing upon the port of Sydney, upon the defence of which the Committee have already submitted their recommendations; and it is in their opinion important, in the event of war and on the appearance in any force of an enemy off the port of Louisburg, that steps should be taken to deny him the use

+ No. 112 of same Paper.

* No. 129 of Miscellaneous, 35 E.

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