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defects of the Kohima site |
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The site selected for the station at Kohima was on a spur connected with the ridge "on which the village stands, at a distance of about a mile from the walls on the south side. The whole of the buildings of the station, including the lines of the military garrison, and of the police, were enclosed in two irregular (20) shaped stockades, close together, but not connected." One of these, the western stockade, contained the buildings occupied by the civil residents and the police : the other was principally devoted to the accommodation of the troops; it also contained the cutcherry or court house. The water supply was provided by an aqueduct constructed by Kohima Nagas, and brought nearly two miles from the hills on the south of the station. "There were also two small springs about 30 yards below the stockades, on the eastern side, down a somewhat steep descent, which afforded an alternative water supply." (No. 2302, dated Shillong, 10th December 1879, from Secretary to Chief Commissioner of Assam, to the Government of India, Foreign Department.) The site was originally chosen by Lieutenant MacGregor, 44th Native Infantry, and Captain Williamson, Political Officer, about the time of Captain Brydon's expedition, and was approved, after personal inspection, by Colonel Keatinge, Chief Commissioner of Assam, in February 1878. From a military point of view, the site was certainly very defective; but at the same time it may be said that, if the choice of ground was limited to that immediately around Kohima, it is probable no better could be found |
