OUR DREADNOUGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 67, 19 March 1910, Page 4

OUR DREADNOUGHT.

New Zealand's offer of a battleship to England during the recent naval crisis is rapidly approaching materialisation. The tenders for the great cruiser of the Indomitable type which is to represent us in the British Navy have been accepted, and the work of construction is to be put in hand forthwith. The total cost -of this huge vessel is to 'be not more than £1,800,000, which is £200,000 less than the estimated cost for which authority was given by Parliament last session; so that tie financial basis of the gift is already amply provided, to the Premier's manifest satisfaction. It should 'be hardly necessary to point out that this warship, though not a "Dreadnought" in the full technical sense of the term, combines all the best features of the approved Dreadnought type. Our Indomitable is to be an 18,000-ton vessel, with a speed of 28 knots; while the original Dreadnought is a vessel of 17,000 tons and only 21 knots speed. The Indomitable cruisers are nearly as heavily armed, and probably even more strongly defended than the Dreadnought line of battle type, and their high speed, in which they far surpass all battleships, adapts them splendidly for the purposes for which our own Indomitaible will be required:—To keep open the great trade

routes, to protect our seaborne commerce, and to chase raiders from our shores. ' The choice of an Indomitable rather than a Dreadnought as our offering to the Admiralty was in no cense due to a desire to save ruoney, and is in effect an ' ample fulfilment of our original promise to supply a first-class warship for the navy. For the Indomitaibles cost nearly as much as the Dreadnoughts, they are classed with the .Dreadnought type in all other navies, and for our purposes they are even more efficient fighting machines. It is important to observe that our cruiser is to toe manned as far as possible iby New Zealanders, and we do not' doubt that the New Zoalanders who fight for the Flag on the high seas will prove no less worthy than our soldiers to maintain the high traditions of our race.