NEW NAVAL SLOOP.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 193, 29 May 1934, Page 3

NEW NAVAL SLOOP.

H.M.S. WELLINGTON.

TO REPLACE THE LABURNUM. (Special to the " Guardian.") AVELLINGTON, May 28. A new sloop not yet off the stocks is to replace H.M.S. Laburnum on the New Zealand station, according to advice received by Mr R. Darroch, secretary of the Wellington branch of the Navy League. ' Vice-Admiral G. O. Stevenson, general secretary of the Navy League, wrote from London asking if the people of Wellington, through the local branch of the League, .would care to associate themselves with the new sloop Wellington, which was shortly to be launched. In a later letter, dated April' 18, Admiral Stevenson stated that it had just come to his notice that the mew ship would be proceeding to New Zealand on completion, to relieve the Laburnum. The Laburnum is a sister-ship of the Veronica, which left Auckland on February 24 for England, to be broken up. Both of these' ships were commenced and launched in 1915, and have a speed of 16.5 knots, and a displacement tonnage of 1165 tons. The new ship, the Wellington, will be a sister-ship to the Leith, which i* due in the Dominion in October to replace the Veronica. Both relieving sloops will be oil-burners. Launched on September 9, the Leith was part of the long-delayed 1931 construction programme. She has a tonnage of 1060, and carries 4.7 inch guns as her principal armament, against the 4-inch weapons of the Veronica and Laburnum. It is not'yet known when the Wellington will arrive in New Zealand, but the replacement is scheduled to take place in 1935.