ENGLAND'S FLEET COSTS A GUINEA A SECOND.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10131, 2 September 1898, Page 5

ENGLAND'S FLEET COSTS A GUINEA A SECOND.

Wβ can (aaya a London paper) get some perception of the cost of our sea defence wh«u we are told that our navy costs us Within a few pence of a guinea a second, day *nd night, throughout the year. The annual income of a Cabinet Minister would be absorbed in less lhan an hour and 20 winutes, and there are not men in the kingdom whoso j early income would pay two tiays' cost of the navy. Every day ™""k the current year we ate paying £25,290 for the building of new ships to add to our fleet; it costs £12,866 a day to pay our officers, seamen and marines; £3793 a eayto feed and clothe them ; and nearly xoOOO a day goes in pensions and half pay to jnen who have ceased to be on the active list; while to equip our veesela with their Mmamenta we are spending £5835 a day. We spend on the maintenance of a single battleship £9000 a year mope than the combined nalaries of our nineteen Cabinet Ministers. One thousand two hundred and sixty pounds a week goes in paying its officers, crews and marines ; nearly £200 in feeding and clothing them, £175 a week oa the engines and their satellites, £91 on ordnance, *o3 on repairs, and £60 on equipment and navigation. These amounts represent the expenditure on a battleship in times of ?»ace, and would- naturally be largely increased in time of war.