Anniversary Address. xxvii. 
required for the defence of these harbours, and, with this object, the 
services of an Imperial officer—Major Cautley, R.E.—have been 
placed at the disposal of the Government. 
The question of the defence of New Zealand has been ably 
reported upon by Major-General Scratchley, but, his visit to the 
colony being necessarily brief, he was unable to undertake the super- 
"vision of the designs of works necessary for the object, and no 
sufficient idea of the probable cost of them was at the time enter- 
tained. 
Of all parts of Australasia, New Zealand, owing to her extensive 
seaboard and numerous harbours, is most in need of local naval 
protection. The principle on which the defence of the colony must 
be based is, that whilst the general protection of its commerce and 
seaboard is provided for by naval means, the chief cities and ports 
should be rendered secure in themselves by land batteries, submarine 
mines, and other local defences. By fortifying these places, the chief 
centres of wealth are absolutely protected, whilst each becomes a focus 
of refuge or action for the general naval defence. 
The main general plan should therefore be to fortify Auckland 
Harbour, Port Nicholson, Port Lyttelton, Port Chalmers, and the 
Bluff Harbour; thus setting free the Imperial cruizers and any local 
naval force we may possess, and thereby greatly strengthening our 
power of general maritime defence. In fact, the fortification of these 
five ports is part and parcel of the naval defence of the colony. 
It is obviously impossible, however, to fortify all the harbours of 
New Zealand. There are in this colony what I may call clusters of 
ports, at the north, the centre, and the south, which are capable of 
sheltering large ships, but at which there is only a small, in some cases 
no, population. In the north, besides Auckland, there are other fine 
harbours in Hauraki Gulf, viz., Kawau Harbour, Tamaki Strait, Coro- 
mandel Harbour; and, in the Great Barrier Island, Port Fitzroy and 
Port Abercromby. Again, to the northward of these, are Whangarei 
Harbour and the Bay of Islands (in both of which there are coal mines), 
Whangaroa Harbour, and Doubtless Bay. In the centre, besides 
Wellington, are Queen Charlotte’s Sound, Nelson, Picton, and other 
ports and anchorages. To the southward of the Bluff Harbour there 
are, in Stewart Island, the grand harbours of Patterson’s Inlet and 
Port Pegasus. At this part of the colony, moreover, to the south-west 
of the Middle Island, there are the numerous harbours at the Sounds. 
The protection of all these, as also that of Napier, New Ply- 
mouth, Timaru, Oamaru, Hokitika, Greymouth, Westport, and other 
comparatively minor places, must be provided for by local naval forces 
acting as auxiliaries to Her Majesty’s cruisers, and combined as far 
