COST OF DEFENCE.
MR MASSEY’S STATEMENT. WELLINGTON, May jo The Prime Minister, speaking at Auckland on Saturday, remarked that the dominion’s expenditure on defence would soon be £1,000,000 a year, but there is an impression abroad that when making this statement Mr Massey was referring to naval defence alone. In the course of an interview to-day Mr Massey made it clear that his remarks had reference to both naval and land defence. corns people thought when I mentioned the cost,” lie said, “that I was speaking of naval defence. I was speaking of the total cost of defence, both naval and military. and I said in all probability that it would reach £1,000,000 within a vear or two, and was not very far short of £1.000.000 now. One million pounds for the size of a population like .sew Zealand is not at all a bad contribution.” Mr Massey also cleared up a misapprehension under which some people labour with respect to the cost of naval defence. At the present time New Zealand bears’ the cost of the maintenance of the cruiser which forms a unit in the New Zealand division of the royal navy, and Mr Massey has stated that at some time in the future another cruiser may also be obtained and’ later on possibly a third. New Zealand docs not buy these cruisers nor pa->- the cost of their construction, as some people think. The dominion’s expenditure is merely on maintenance. Mr Massey’s statement on this point today was as follows:—“The cruisers are practically loaned to us by the British Government on the understanding that as lone- as they serve their purnose there will be no interference, and the British Government will not rake them away. \Vo pay the maintenance. The cost of the maintenance of H.M.S. Dunedin, which i« neont to become the flagship of the New Zealand division, will be between £250.000 and j?7An 000 per annum, f think, however, that the cost of maintaining tho Dunedin will be less than that of the Chatham, which is proceeding to the East Indies, because the complement of the Dunedin is 100 men less and the Dunedin is an oil-burner, whereas the Chatham uses coal for fuel. If we go in for another cruiser naval defence will probably cost about £500.000 a year. When we think it is our duty to take over another cruiser she will be a vessel like the Danae or the Dauntless, wnich are sister ships of the Dunedin. The arrangement under which New Zealand works in regard to naval defence has enabled the British Government to withdraw some of the smaller cruisers which it had out in these waters.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 3662, 20 May 1924, Page 28
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446COST OF DEFENCE. Otago Witness, Issue 3662, 20 May 1924, Page 28
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