N.Z. RATINGS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 March 1932, Page 7

N.Z. RATINGS

TRIBUTE FROM) COMMODORE. EXTA ORDINARY INITIATIVE. AUCKLAND, February 29. A tribute to the- Now Zealanders serving in the New 'Zealand division of the Royal Navy was paid last week by Rear-Admiral Geoffrey Blake, Commodore in command of the Dominion station, speaking at a farewell smoke concert given by the White Ensign Club, of which he is patron. In the two cruisers out here, he said, there were approximately 60 per cent, of New Zealanders, born and bred in the country. “I am so fond of those fellows,” he said, “they are so human.” They were quite different from the Imperial rating, he added, but they had got on very well. They had played up to the mark as well as they had done in the Great War. They showed an extraordinary amount of initiative under most trying circumstances. It had given him much pleasure to command the division for two and a-half years. DIVISION ECONOMICAL AND SOUND. The small division in New Zealand, Rear-Admiral Blake said, tried to maintain the Royal Navy’s traditions and at the same time to . bring up the New Zealand personnel in those traditions. “I can conceive of no better Arrangement for -any Dominion,” he said, “for it is not only economical, but sound, and I think that the Government realises it.” The New Zealand division was run probably on 11101'e economical linbs than any other service existing. He knew that it cost- very much little per head of population than the services in other Dominions, The toast of “The Royal Navy” was proposed by Lieutenant-Commander Juler, who said that the Dominions had a full appreciation of the value of the Navy, which had made it possible for them to come into existence and to live. Now that there were fewer ships, one of the best forms of insurance was to do 1 all they could for those men who were out- of the serviCe_to see that they were employed and kept in the strength and ability to serve. There was not much that the Dominions could do bv themselves, but they could retain the light cruisers to keep the trade routes open. “The spirit of the Navy has always been sound and always will be, whether colonial 1 or Imperial,” said the chairman, Mr A. B. Downing, pi°posing the toast of Admiral Blake, to whom lie presented a life- member s badge of the club.