CAB9-1_PT2 — Page 210

t

(2.) Auckland.

(a.) To mount 1-8-in. B.L. gun, apparently available at the station, on Mount Victoria, presumably to cover the inner waters of the harbour.

(b.) To provide 2-12-pr. Q.F. guns for the defence of the mine-field.

(c.) To complete telephonic communication.

(d.) To complete the submarine mining defence by building a test room, observing stations, cable-tanks, &c., and by providing a submarine mining-boat.

(e.) To complete the electric light installation.

(f.) To complete the building for torpedo establishment, and to provide a new torpedo-boat for the port.

(3.) Lyttelton.

(a.) To evacuate Fort Ripa, and to mount the two 8-in. and two 6-in. B.L. guns with which it is armed on the north side of the entrance on sites from which they could command the entrance and harbour.

(b.) To erect the electric light plant which has been provided under the lower gun of Summer Road Battery (P Battery Point).

(4.) Dunedin and Port Chalmers.

(a.) To replace the present mounting of the 6-in. B.L. gun at Tairoa Heads by one admitting of 15° depression.

(b.) To remove the 7-in. R.M.L. gun at Tairoa Heads from its present position, whence it can only fire on ships coming to the port from the south, and to mount it on an available site whence it can bear on the entrance water.

(c) To remove the 7-in. R.M.L. gun from St. Clair.

(d.) To provide for blocking the difficult entrance to Port Chalmers by a few ground mines in the narrowest part of the channel.

(e.) To erect the buildings required for utilizing the electric light plant already provided.

5. The above proposals are satisfactory in that they are aimed at increasing the efficiency of the existing defences, without involving any very considerable expen- diture on new works and armament.

With regard, however, to the defence of Wellington, which at present rests mainly on the considerable amount of gun-fire which can be brought to bear on the water in which ships must lie in order to effectively bombard the town, it is not thought that a battery of 2-4-7-in. guns at Somes Island would strengthen the defence to the extent which the Commandant anticipates. These guns would be 5,000 yards from the main and subsidiary channels into the harbour opposite Gordon Point, and at this range could not produce any considerable effect. They would undoubtedly, until silenced by superior fire, cover the water to the east of Somes Island, but ships lying in this water could not effectively act against the town or against shipping lying off it.

The proposal to place a single 8-in. gun and 2-6-pr. Q.F. guns at Melrose Point protect the Newtown end of Wellington from bombardment by a ship lying near Island Bay does not either commend itself to the Committee. Bombardment at the long range involved is not a serious danger, and could scarcely be averted by a single unsupported heavy gun.

The Committee would prefer to see a battery of 2-8-in. B.L. guns (the one from Dunedin and the one at present dismounted at Auckland) mounted with 2-12-pr. Q.F. guns near Dorset Point, whence they could fire over the entrance to the harbour at its narrowest point, and effectively support the existing works near Gordon Point.

If this were done the mine-field should be removed to a little south of Dorset Point, where it could be of half the length of the present field, and where it could block the entire entrance to the harbour, instead of leaving as at present an unobstructed channel, which could be used by ships drawing as much as 3 fathoms ‚of water.

The electric-light installation should then also be transferred to near Dorset Point.

I

"

}

Page 210

Page 210Page 211 of 290