UNITED STATES FLEET.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2263, 7 August 1908, Page 2

UNITED STATES FLEET.

THE FLEET APPROACHING. IU) IJGII W HAT IL m EX 1 'FRIENDED. United Press Association, Coi-yitioirr (Received August 6, 11.40 p.m.) :• MELBOURNE, August 0. Router's wireless telegram iron) the United States lleet at 8 p.m. last night is as follows:—Auckland is. now distant 810 nautical miles. The position of the lleet is 20deg 23min south and 17(leg Binin 31 sec west. The weather is rough, but the usual daily evolutions are boing carried out. AUCKLAND NOTES. SPLENDID DECORATION'S. [Press Association.] ADCKLAND, August 0. Following several days rain, the weather appears to have set line. The display of fleet decorations are proceeding with the utmost expedition, and the main thoroughfare is üblu/.c with flags and banners of welcome from towns throughout the Dominion. The display by electric and gas light will ho very fine, and the town will be a perfect forest of native sli rubs ana foliage. (Special to “Times.”) AUCKLAND, August G. A large number of visitors arrived to-day from south and north for fleet celebrations, and the town is very lively. The decorations are almost completed. Accommodation will be t ixed.

SAILORS’ SPENDING POWER. Captain Limond, the commander of the Magdala, the collier which has brought to Auckland 0000 tons of coal from America for the use of the visiting lleet, estimates thyt the American sailors will spend £2 a head during their stay in Auckland. “'Running out and in of American ports,” lie said, “I have had.many opportunities of. observing the United States bluejacket. Indeed, shortly before the Magdala left for Auckland, I watched tho ifleet of sixteen battleships, which will soon he here, steaming out of the roads at Newport, Virginia, and a magnificent sight it was, the long line of warships stretching out over a distance of nearly seven niles. The American bluejacket rerives pay amounting to between £3 d £4 a month, and from whit I have seen, he disposes of it liberally. I should say that it would be a conservative estimate to figure each man as spending £2 during the week lie is hero. As over 12,000 men are coming that would mean £24,000 or more spent in Auckland alone, so that it is true to say tli it trade follows the flag.” ..