NEW ZEALAND'S CRUISER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 219, 10 June 1919, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND'S CRUISER

LOCAL INTEREST AROUSED, ' Tho announcement, made in a cablegram last week, that the Imperial Government will liamTover to New Zealand "a thoroughly up-to-date light cruiser of between 4500 and 5000 tons" has been received with much interest among local members of the Navy League and others regardful of the naval defence of the Dominion. The vessel was stated to bo oil driven, but 'tho Admiralty was willing, in view of the possible difficulty of securing oil fuel, _to substitute temporarily a coal-burning ship of the Bristol class. The exchange would be mado when convenient to the New Zealand Government. It appears from a message sent by tho official correspondent ffiat the substitute cruiser .is to be similar to tho Sydney and Melbourne,' of the Australian Squadron. The Australian cruisers belong to the Chatham class, and are two years later in design than tho Bnstols. They are ships of 5400 tons, with a nominal specif of 25.5 knots. They carry each a complement of 880 men and an armament of eight 6-inch guns, with four 3pounders and two torpedo-tubes. Since tho war they have been fitted with antiaircraft gun's in ndflition to their original armament. The Chathams wero the first of the light armoured cruisers and the last ships of the type to burn coal. The Aurora class, consisting of thirtyknnt oil-burning boats, with a three-inch belt of Krnpn steel and a tunin armament of two 6-incTi and six 4-inch guns, came next in order, and wero in progress of construction when tho war began. The Arethnsa, a hast'ly-cbmpleted cruiser of this ola«s. won famo at the BetHe of Heligoland Bkht. The oil-burning vessel that is offered to New Zealand evidently belongs to "Vine of the croups of lieht armoured cruisers designed and built during the war. Her tonnage is given as between 4500 and 5000 tons, whereas the displacement of the cruisers laid down in the cavlv months of 1914 was about SPftfl tons. There were eight of' these cruisers, headed by the Cordelia. They burned oil fuel exclusively, had. tho same armament as the Auroras, nncT were for n fnep'! of thirty knots, which is known to have been exceeded on trial. The Cordelias were to be protected by a three-inch belt of steel and two-inch steel decks, but full particulars of the class have never been disclosed. Only one of th»so boats had been launched in August, 1914. Of the cruisers that wero laid down and completed during tho war veryMittle in. formation has beeii made public.

The cost of maintaining a cruiser of the kind that New Zealand is to possess, if the Government accents the Admiralty's offer, is large. The Admiralty estimated before the war that the annual clinrnps for the 'upkeep of a Bristol in commission amounted to ■f1'2.000. This figure was on British of pay and British prices. An incrensß of at least 25 per ofnt. would have io be made to cover colonial rates of pay and tlip higher cost of maintenance in New Zealand. Arc oil-burning cruiser of a later type probably would be even more costly.