A DREADNOUGHT FUND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume 23, Issue 14017, 23 September 1909, Page 2

A DREADNOUGHT FUND.

KING EDWARD NAVAL COLLEGE.

FOR NEW SOUTH WALES.

liy Electric Telegraph. — Copyright (Received Sept. 23, 9.55 a.m.) cjJcX>^aX', Sept. 23. The Lord Mayor's scheme for utilising tiie .Dreadnought fund for the erection of a naval college- and the establishment of naval farms has been adopted by the contributors.

The Dreadnought Committee last week discussed a minute from the Lord Mayor, which suggested that half the Dreadnought fund should be devoted to tho erection of a King Edward Naval College on Sydney Harbour or the Parramarta River; and half to the establishment of Dreadnought training farms in the principal farming districts of New -South Wales, for the training of jxmng British immigrants in Australian methods. " The Sydney Morning Herald says that some of the largest subscribers to* the fund favoured the Jjord Mayor's proposals, and it was finally decided to consider them again when they had been made known to subscribers generally. Each scheme is estimated to involve an expenditure of £50,090. The fund now stands at £85,000, hut if the sum& collected in the country districts, and still unforwarded to Sydney, are included, it amounts to nearly the sum needed. Moreover, the Lord Mayor was offered, on behalf of a company whose -name cannot yet be made public, and subject to confirmation from its Lou-; don principals, an extra one-fifth of any sum which may be set apart towards the training farm project. The Prime Minister explained to the Lord Mayor in Melbourne that the whole Commonwealth must be3r , the" cost of its share of Imperial defence, and that special State donations were not desirable. Hence this plan, 'by which the loyalty of New South Wales to Great Britain may find some tangible expression. The Federal authorities heartily approve the scheme for a naval college, which they recognise as essential to the new defence policy and they will find the funds to keep it gomg. The lads for the training farms are to tie cliostn -uudcr strict Aus» tralian-inade conditions *by a British organisation, and will be landed in Sydney free of cost to New South Wales.