THE DREADNOUGHT ESSAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1133, 14 August 1913, Page 4

THE DREADNOUGHT ESSAY.

SOME HOWLERS.

The Grey Star bad an essay competition in connection with the visit of H.M.S. New Zealand, which was judged by Mr W. S. Austin, Inspector ot Schools at Greymouth. In a covering memo Mr Austin writes:—

Following are some odd remarks made by writers in the New Zealand Battleship Essay Competition. These, as you will readily perceive, helped considerably to relieve the tedium of the judge’s work; The New' Zealand was built on the Clyde by a large number of New Zealanders who were then at Home. She was presented by the people of England to the Imperial Government of New Zealand. H.M.S. New Zealand was launched on the Clyde in the presence of Sir Joseph Ward, and the honourable lady cut the cord and she hoped to God it would never need to be used.

The battleship weighs about 12.000 pounds. She is nineteen tons in weight. She carries 190.000 tons ot water. The New Zealand is 800 yards long, 400 yards wide, and has armour plate 12 feet thick. She cost She has four propellers and an udder. The battleship has torpedo masts. On the masts are rope ladders which the sailors climb up to balance the ship. She has Pelorus Jack on board fitted with wireless telegraphy. She came into view in her shining coat of armour.

The New Zealand could lay six miles of the coast and fire one of her twelve-inch guns and Kumara would be nothing. She could lie over ten thousand miles out from the north tip-head and firing broadside her eight guns could pour into Greymouth tons of shells every minute. When one of these guns is fired it penetrates twelve inches of steel and then explodes.

The battleship landed at Greymouth, Some of the ladies had to go home without pads in their hair and it hung all over their head and it nearly drove them mad. The New Zealand was the first ship that has ever gone south of the equator. New Zealand was willing to bear her part as well as the other parts of the Empire. At night, if a cry of “man overboard” is heard, an officer at once lets slip a handle, and as soon as the boat touches the water it bursts into a flame, then the me n in the boat can see where the man is and how they can rescue him.

Captain Lionel Halsey is captain of H.M.S. New Zealand, but as he lives by himself in his own apartments the responsibility falls to commander Grace. Everything on board of her shines like the sun ; we then sang Britannia rules the waves.