Naval Estimates

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 178, 27 January 1914, Page 5

Naval Estimates

NEW TAXATION INVOLVED. ESTIMATES TOR £53,000,000. By Cable —Press Association —Copyright London, January 25. It is understood that the Navy Estimates amount to £53,000,000, involving new taxation. IMPERIAL NAVAL CONFERENCE SUGGESTED. Received 26, 10.25 p.m. Capetown, January 25. The Cape Argus urges Mr. Asquith to summon an Imperial Naval Conference.

BATTLESHIP CONSTRUCTION. LARGE EXPENDITURE FOR OIL FUEL BURNING. LONDON NEWSPAPER OPINION.

Rcecivcd 26, 8.55 p.m. London, January 26. The Chronicle attributes the excess of naval expenditure to the unexpected acceleration of battleship building in private yards owing to the long stretch of fine weather in 1013, and the decline of merchant shipbuilding orders. The paper adds that one heavy itjem is extra repairs, and another is Jue to the altered design of several ships, constituting innovations. Oil fuel involved a large expenditure.

■ Some members of the Government, continues the Chronicle, helieve that after 1014, the naval expenditure will tend to decline, but meanwhile other departments must be starved. The >■>-(, Office developments \HII be arrested, and money will be lacking for any real advance in national education. The paper quotes the speech of Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, on March 20 last, asking that the programme be based on the orobable maximum that contractors would be able to earn, but giving warning of a possibility that in the Supplementary Estimates the cruiser Invincible's gun control might be coonvejted from electrical to hydraulic, at'a cost of £114,- °°°- .:il-£.1&:

A RICH MAN'S REQUIREMENT. London, January 25. Mr. Hobhouse, M.P., speaking at Bristol, declared that it was the •wealthy people who were calling for increased armaments. He hoped they would not regret it if Mr. Lloyd-George called upon them to pay a little more if an increase in the Navy Estimates was decided upon.