THE BRITISH NAVY.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XVI, Issue 2393, 25 February 1889, Page 4

THE BRITISH NAVY.

There must be something radically wrong with the Admiralty when blunder after blunder of the most criminal kind is perpetrated. One case is just made public. A few weeks ago it was decided that tbe old warship Minotaur should be taken in hand at Portsmouth dockyard and put in proper repair. The hull of the vessel is as sound as ever. The upper deck is to be removed, and the new one put in. But here comes the blunder. She is to retain all her old obsolete muzzle loading guns ; and, above all, she is to keep her old antiquated engines of about seven-knot speed. The money that is to be wasted on her is £25,000, and when the job is finished she will be condemned as useless.

There was an interesting debate last month in the House of Commons on the Naval Estimates. Lord Charles Beresf ord wants £20,000,000 of money to put the navy into what he terms " merely a decent state of efficiency." Jjord George Hamilton ridiculed the idea that our navy required one tenth that amount spent upon it. He said that our navy had never been relatively stronger than it is to-day, and perhaps we may not be equal to a match with a combination,* of European Powers, yet we are far stronger than any single Power that could be named. No doubt it is all very well for his Lordship to cry stinking fish, but the fact remains that in the opinion of experts best able to judge, our navy is not one quarter sufficient to defend our principal ports in England, let alone our Fast colonial dependencies. Never before in the history of Great Britain has greater watchfulness been required. The whole of Europe fo onp vast camp. The whole of the European navies are ready for action, and the kindiing of a little fire would set the whole of Europe in a blaze.

Garlick and Cranwell have made a general reduction in prices to suit the times Theirs is the largest and cheapest stock in Auckland of Furnitura, Bedding, Carpets, Floor Cloths, Iron Bedsteads, Perambulators. Curtains and all kinds of Furnishing 1 goods, Goods are very carefully packed. Prompt cash, discount 6 per cent. Price lists sent post free. Chairs in great variety— good strong cane-seated chair for 3s 9d. Furniuh your npuse from Garliok & Cranwell, Queen Street, Auckland,

The Japanese stock ats at Cornell |Jnfyersity have a way of cooking English sparrows so that they make a very palatable dish, and the Japs like them so much that they make a standing offer of three cents apiece for all the ■parrowß brought to them.