Anniversary Address. xxxi. 



be advisable also to place a battery on Takapuna Head, which will 

 materially aid in the defence. These should be supported by a 

 central work on Mount Victoria, which will act as a citadel by 

 which absolute possession of the peninsula on the north side of 

 the harbour will be secured. Some guns also, facing the entrance 

 to the harbour, should be placed on the south shore at Resolution 

 Point. 



A field of submarine mines should be laid across the harbour in 

 the most convenient situation to prevent an enemy running at full 

 speed past the batteries and up the harbour, to a position out of 

 range of our guns from whence he could fire into Auckland. It 

 should be observed that there is deep water extending for upwards 

 of four miles above the town. 



As regards the defence of Auckland against a force landed, as 

 it might be, in Tamaki Strait, on the southern shore of the Hauraki 

 Gulf, this can only be met by a field force. There are excellent 

 positions for such defence behind the Tamaki Inlet and the neck 

 which divides it from Manukau Harbour. The difficulties of naviga- 

 tion will probably suffice for the defence of that harbour; but, if 

 anything further be required, there is a favourable site for a battery 

 near Onehunga. 



The waters of the Waitemata, with the citadel on Mount Victoria 

 and its outwork at Takapuna Head, commanding the narrow neck 

 near it, will fully protect Auckland from land attack on the northern 

 side. 



POET NICHOLSON AND WELLINGTON. 



Port Nicholson stands in the same relation to the central cluster 

 of harbours that Auckland does to the northern. 



On examining the chart (see Plate II.) the first plan that sug- 

 gests itself for the defence of Port Nicholson is to place lines of 

 torpedoes between the reef under Dorset Point and Hind's Point, 

 where the channel is only about 1,400 yards wide, and to establish a 

 battery on Dorset Point, whence artillery fire might be brought to 

 bear on hostile vessels covering attempts to remove the submarine 

 defences. 



The passage, however, being open to the full force of southerly 

 gales, there would be considerable difficulty in establishing and main- 

 taining lines of torpedoes across it in an efficient state, and in the 

 absence of an efficient system of submarine mines no reliance can be 

 placed on being able to stop attacking vessels at the entrance. Once 

 past it, there would be nothing to prevent their running on, occupying 

 the harbour, and levying a contribution upon Wellington. 



