MERCANTILE MEN-OF-WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 40, 13 January 1880, Page 3

MERCANTILE MEN-OF-WAR.

♦■ Tn reference to the steamer Orient, whose arrival nt Melbourne was announced recently, the Home News says : — " The launch of tbat magnificent steamship the Orient marks the commencement of a new epoch in our communications with the Antipodes. With; a tonnage of 12,000 tons, she will" be the largest passengersMprialfoat, as tbe Great Eastern roljjatoo much to be included in the same category. As a means of shortening the voyage and of offering - superior comforts to immigrants, she will probably increase the popularity of Australian emigration. But the Orient is something more than a passenger and emigrant steamer of extraordinary size- She is also one of the first of the ships of our mercantile navy which has been specially constructed with a view to their employment on emergency as vessels of war. The present First Lord of the Admiralty has given this matter unceasing, attention since he came into office, and the building of the Orient has been supervised by an Admiralty official with this particular object in view. The wisdom of this scheme is obvious. Although we have numerically the largest navy in the world, the duties it would have to perform in the event of serious war would be . enormous. The fleet needed for the defence of our own shores would take at least half the ships of war afloat, nnd the rest would scarcely suffice for protectiou of our outlying possessions and long lines of communications. These, indeed, aie the lines along which our trade, o ur commerce, but more particularly our food, would travel. Any stoppage of the latter would soon leave the British Isles, to use Bismarck's expression of Paris, " Bimmeiing in their own juice." But ships like the Olient employed in the carrying trade would nob only be able to hold their own upon the seas, but they would form a substantial reinforcement to our regular fleet*