ADMIRALS AT LUNCH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 296, 11 December 1912, Page 5

ADMIRALS AT LUNCH.

rNTEKESTTRTG SPEECHES. (By Telesrapl.—Own Correspondent) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Members of the New Zealand Club had the unusual pkasure of entertaining two admirals to-day. The Club guest •was Admiral Sir Goo. King-Hall, commander of the Australian station, and on his right sat Rear-Admiral Ross, who has just entered the retired list with 50 years of service in the United States navy to his credit, and is spending sonuof his leave on a world tour. The British Admiral is also a veteran, and in a jocular after-lunch controversy as to their respective length of active service the American visitor won. However, Admiral King-Hall was able, by quoting personal experience, to take his hearers back to the very -small beginnings of the German navy, for he remembered, as a midshipman, attending the celebration 'at the inanguration of work on the great German naval base of Frederickshaven. "The Prussian navy was then represented by a small frigate presented to it by Britain, but by 1912 that navy will include 49 battleships, and fourfifths of them on a war footing." Admiral King-Hall spoke enthusiastically of the development of the Australian navy, and, looking perhaps thirty years ahead, said the time would come when there would be no need to draw on headquarters for an admiral. He viewed with satisfaction the future possibility of the four great nations— Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand —uniting in counsel over the control of the Pacific. Rear-Admiral Ross gave New Zealand a good business hint in connection with Panama Canal possibilities. He talked of the big avenues of trade to flow through it, pointing out that New Zealand would then have the choice of thirteen American ports, eight on the eastern seaboard and five on the Pacific, for their produce, while at Apia, Pango Pango, Tahiti, and Samoa would be four big coaling ports, which ought to be filled up with New Zealand coal. Admiral Ross advised the Panama Canal sightseer to get there before July next if he wanted to realise the immensity of the work, for at that date it was proposed to let water into the Culebra cut. The canal would be open for business in September, and arrangements had been made to deal with ten thousand tourists a month.