THE NAVY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5457, 8 January 1896, Page 4

THE NAVY.

In a speech at Brighton on Nov. 19, the • Marquis of Salisbury dealt .with questions of naval defence. He maintained that "It is our business to be quite . sure of the safety of this island home of ours, whose inaccessibility is the source of all our greatness, so that no iinproveme_tt of foreign fleets, and no. combination of foreign alliances shall- be able for a moment to threaten our safety at home. But do not imagine that I am in any fear of such alliancesi On the contrary, I believe this country is more thoroughly friendly with all the world than it has been for some time. But you know that Governments change — infeome countries they change very often — and policies, of course, may change with Governments. * * * Then we are in a period of transition in another respect in respect to armaments. Nobody yet knows what the torpedo will do in actual warfare; nobody yet knows which is the more important— the big ironclad pr the swift cruiser. These tilings can only be decided by experience. You can obtain jfoom any particular authority any kind of expert opinion you wish to get, not because expert authority is insincere, but because the h\un$j5 fflls^ \§ ,f 9 ?9?.?Wwfcf d that, a mail of great energy^ftiid experience always differs from his fieiglibotir who is equally qualified 3 and while* that* difference and uncertainty exist, .wMe we are in that period of transition, our wisdom is to make ourselves so certainly safe that we can look upon auy issue of the experiment with indifference. We must make ourselves safe at sea whatever happens, and therefore a terrible result is that tho Admiralty will always be an importunate claimant, and wiilbe for Some time an importunate claimant, at the doors of the Treasury. I do not look upon that, state of things with any satisfaction. I • grieve that so much of the resources of this country. must be spent in what is : essentially unprofitable expenditure; rind 1 , most' of all '.do' I '■■ grieve that at. this moment of extreme ' distress there shouiy be such heavy burdens thrown upon the taxpayers of this country i. But, after all,, safety from a foreign foe conies before every other earthly blessing, and we must take care, in our responsibility to the many interests that depend upon us, and in our responsibility to the generations that are to succeed us, that no neglect of ours shall suffer that safety to be compromised."

RIVER FORDS. . Owing to the number of fatalities and casualties reported in- connection with the various river-bed crossings in the Orari, Opilii and Pareora Rivers, the public are urging the local bodies to agree upon combined action in the matter of attention to fords generally. It appears that the body having charge of, one side of the ford will perhaps do its duty promptly, but that upon the opposite side nothing is done for a time, and consequently everyone entering upon the good side has to explore the river for an exit. More particular attention has been drawn to the matter through the death of Mr H. Squire in the Pareora* who, in following a heifer along a welldefined track, galloped into a hole fully ten feet deep.