AUSTRALIA'S NAVY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1733, 25 April 1913, Page 4

AUSTRALIA'S NAVY.

One of the chief arguments in favour of the local navy idea is the fact that it would bring home to people much more effectually than a financial contribution to the Home Navy could', over do, a proper sense of the obligations resting on them in the matter of naval defence. The contribution which Australia, for instance, used to make to the Imperial Navy was not felt by the general public; it was not even known to many of those who assisted to pay it. The result was that while the Australian people realised the importance of Britain maintaining her naval superiority they_ did not always properly appreciate the fact that it was their duty to share fully in tho responsibility involved. Now flint the Commonwealth has a navy of its own it may confidently be expected that Australians will develop a new outlook on naval matters and will gradually conic to possess a sounder and a deeper knowledge of what tliev have owed and what (hey ,j;till owe 1.0 t.lie AKil.lie.r C-.nint-ry. This of course Louelics ou ouo point

in a very debatable question which is likely to bo a, subjcct of discussion in Now Zealand ere long, and mention of it at the moment is prompted only by a cablo message which we publish this morning from Sydney. Admiral Sie Geokge King-Hall, Commander of the Australian Squadron, who may be presumed to speak with authority, has had something to say conccrning the progress of the Australian Navy which must prove very encouraging to the people of the Commonwealth. The men entering it, he said, had proved full of zeal amenable to discipline and proud of the service. While this is only as it should bo it is at the same time a matter of satisfaction to know from such an authority _ that hero in the colonies, as in Britain, we have available the right stamp of material' that goes to the making of the nation's "handy-man." The very sage advico which Admiral Sib Geokge Ring-Hall appears to have tacked on to his complimentary references to the Commonwealth Navy arc worth noting by the people of New Zealand—more particularly, perhaps, by its politicians.