A NEW ZEALAND NAVY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1086, 19 April 1913, Page 4

A NEW ZEALAND NAVY.

STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER

Recently the Sydney Sim published the following from its Loudon correspondent: "Mr Allen is meeting with most generous assistance in completing the plans for the navy which New Zealand desires to build. It may not lie ;\U tlus hft imd hi?) colleagues hoped when they determined to follow the example of Australia, but it will be as good and efficacious as the money at the disposal of the New Zealand Government will allow. With the formation pf her own navy,' New Zealand wdl ask _ relief from her contribution to the British Navy, paid as her share of the cost of policing the Pacific; but, notwithstanding this, the Admiralty will in several ways assist New Zealand with the creation and maintenance of hpV (ITOU base. The - Dpridifion hmdd hSk W. gift battleship New Zealand to he slatiohed in her waters. X understand, however, that she will waive her rights in this respect at the outset, because, in 1915, Great Britain will require every super-Dreadnought in existence to hold her place in the Channel and the North Sea. Beside which, it will,, (ft course, Sinufi ye.qra tfl tyuihf the now' 7 warships. As it is, Great Britain cannot lay down keels and launch warships as fast as she would _ like, and New Zealand could not fairly intrude and interrupt her construction gramme when she knywjj that Great Britain would not' consider these ships as in substitution of what she could have built for herself. In the very near future, therefore, there will be two Dominion fleets ‘U the Rnoifpi ” ' ‘‘NOTHING OF THE SORT.”

The paragraph was referred by a Post reporter to the Prime Minister (Hon. W. F. Massey). ‘The paragraph,” be replied, “says m effect that

New Zealand proposes building a navy of its own. New Zealand proposes nothing of the sort, ft evidently was written by someone with a very fertile imagination. Mr Allen has had several conferences'with the Imperial authorities on the subject of naval defence for Now Zealand, and when he returns to the Dominion he will report the result to his colleagues. Until then nothing further will be done. I may say, however, that like Mr Allen, I believe that some modification of the present arrangement will be proposed, and you may be quite, sure of this, that anything that may be suggested by the New "Zealand Government will be for the benefit both of the Empire and our own' Dominion. Any proposals that we have to make will be submitted to Parliament in due course. More than that I cannot say at present.”