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Appendix No. 4.

VANCOUVER ISLAND.

lift carriages for which could be kept in complete working order by them with the aid of the machine shops within a few hundred yards. As to feasibility of repair, no better arrangement could well be imagined.

For the construction of the proposed batteries a company of Royal Engineers would be required; if they were retained as part of the permanent garrison, the objections to a garrison from the Royal Artillery as requiring a special supply department would not hold good.

The smallest permanent garrison of regular trained artillerymen to guard and fight the guns for the protection of Victoria and the harbour, including the batteries at Finlayson Point, Victoria Point, and that proposed for Holland Point, which are separated by considerable distances, would be 100 gunners, with a proper proportion of officers and non-commissioned officers.

1. I concur with Lieutenant-Colonel Irwin that, owing to the isolated position of Victoria, the very limited number of its population, and the high rate of wages paid for labour, special and almost insuperable difficulties are placed in the way of the establishment of anything like an efficient volun- teer force sufficiently numerous or well trained for the purpose of manning this number of guns and maintaining an effective fire against ships in motion, a duty the successful performance of which requires the greatest possible amount of training and intelligence on the part of the gunners.

2. This force would serve as a nucleus and training school for the volunteers, could be profitably employed in the care of the several batteries, guns, stores, &c., and if a sufficient number of artificers, such as stonemasons, bricklayers, and carpenters, several of whom are generally found in the ranks of "A" and "B" batteries, were included in their number, the work of converting the present earthen batteries into defences of a more permanent character could be gradually carried on with considerable economy of expenditure.

3. This force would have to furnish detachments for Nanaimo, New Westminster, or Burrard Inlet, in view to the protection of the Continental terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

4. Experience has shown that the organization of the Canadian Gunnery Schools is better suited to the instruction and training of volunteer militia artillery than the mere presence of a garrison of Royal, or Royal Marine Artillery, as at Halifax.

The annexed communication, (C), from Captain Dupont (Acting Deputy Adjutant-General, No. 11 Military District), shows the authorized strength of the volunteer militia of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, and gives the probable number of men capable of bearing arms that would be available in case of emergency. Captain Dupont, who commands the battery of volunteer militia artillery, is a zealous and intelligent officer, whose opinion may be relied upon, and who deserves great credit for the efficiency he has produced in the battery under his command, the care he has taken of the batteries and armament in his charge, and, indeed, for the manner he has performed the duties of Deputy Adjutant-General during the absence of Lieutenant-Colonel Houghton, Deputy Adjutant- General. My personal thanks are due to him for the assistance he rendered me at Victoria. He proposes to qualify by a course of instruction at one of the Gunnery Schools, which will, I trust, be sanctioned.

The force of volunteer militia at Victoria was inspected by Colonel Lovell, C.B., R.E., who expressed a favourable opinion of their efficiency, especially of their gun practice.

Since the death of Sergeant Bramalı, late Royal Artillery, Assistant Gunnery Instructor from "A" battery, Captain. Tatlow, who has obtained a first-class long course certificate from "B" battery, has been appointed Caretaker and Instructor to the volunteer militia artillery; from my knowledge of him as an officer, I have no doubt he will perform his duties satisfactorily.

I have to recommend, with a view to better training and instruction, that the increase to the battery of garrison volunteer militia artillery take the form of a second battery by changing No. 1 Company of rifles into artillery (a change they themselves desire), as there are not sufficient men of the class willing to enrol to keep up the increased strength of artillery and rifles.

The battery of artillery commanded by Lieutenant Pittendrigh, late Her Majesty's 3rd Regiment, might be completed by the addition of ten men and an officer, and a suitable equipment supplied, their gun-carriages being rotten.

A fourth battery should be raised at Nanaimo. The whole making a brigade of four batteries, commanded by Captain Dupont, with rank as Lieutenant-Colonel, with Captain Tatlow as Adjutant, Gunnery Instructor, and Quartermaster.

The strength of 100 gunners for "C" battery, C. A., is calculated upon allowing four men per gun, regular artillery, for the batteries at. Victoria, besides furnishing detachments for Nanaimo and New Westminster. The brigade of 160 men, volunteer militia artillery, making up the complement required for efficient working of the batteries as well as manning the four 16-pounder heavy field-guns and two 24-pounder howitzers at New Westminster, which might be found useful in securing the roads from the south which unite at New Westminster on the opposite side of the Fraser River.

The position of New Westminster is a naturally strong one, between the frontier and Burrard Inlet. The single road from the south, through a densely-wooded ridge on the south bank of the Fraser River, opposite New Westminster, could be closed by Captain Pittendrigh's guns flanked by the rifle company and by auxiliary Indian sharpshooters.

Military Colonization. The best defence of a territory is a loyal and contented population. A practicable system of military colonization would add much to the security and development of the country.

This subject has been treated in a paper entitled "Military Aspect of Canada," read before the United Service Institution, London, 2nd and 7th May, 1879.

It would appear that the most suitable spot for such a system of military colonization in British Columbia would be the delta of the Fraser; the embankment of such tracts to protect them from the overflow of the river and high tides, as well as the construction of a canal to relieve the surplus.waters, would be a work requiring special organization of a military character; it is not a work which can be

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