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OUR NEW ZEALABND LETTER.
(From Our Cyr spondent)
S WELLINGTO? March 15.
NEW ZEALXkND N HE AVY.
In'continuation of his policy of Im
perialism, which. hba 4d his fame
throughout the 'old 1? d, Mr. Seddon
has now turned his flihghts towards
the improvement of-the-Navy, or, at
nll events, of that pd tlbn of it which
is known as the Aus t *r d18in Squadron.
Speaking the other d."hat a Lbnquet
given to the superintending cngineer
of the Union Steamship'Company, the
Premier said it was 'fto the Navy we
must look to maintain ,tile p~ace of the
world. The other dathe ljritish Par
liamnent voted ten millions for the
strengthening of the Nttvy, and they
did this without a murmur. 11e also
said thqt were it not for ;our • Navy
there would have been-outside inter
ferenice long ago in respedt oPf ..the
Trmnsvaal war. .ie paid a high coni
pliment to the prowess-of the Navy,
and gave it as his :opinion that we
ought to look ahead in ri ard to the
strengthening., of it. 'Atall events, at
the conference of Premiers in. London
at the time'of the Coronationhe would
support the. proposal to strengthen
the Australasian Squaodron, aid he was
prepared; on beialf of ~N~.wZealand,
to guarantee that we would eubscribe,
on a population basis,-to the increased
cost. lie was opposed to the'colonies
having navies of their oen,' as he
thought they were better minder the
protection of thle British Navy: though
at the same time it wduld he adi idvan
tage.if something were dono in the
way of training colonials in the Aus
traiasian Squadron. In our merchant
stehamers at present ve lhniad many
aliensand very few Neiw Zealanders or
]ritishers. This was astate 'of af
fairs that should not be a:- llowed to
go on, and soinething ouglit to be done
in the direction of gettin' a larger
number of Britishers on Britih ships.
Apropos of cldefence, I may mention
thatlMr. Seddon intends alsoe to sug
g'st the establishident of e> reserve
force in the colony under A' agred
ment between the Parliament of Neewv
Zealand and the British Government.
T.his force, lhe thinks, should be reasly
at a moment's notice to take the field
when required by the Imperial author
itics. i Furthermore, Mr. Seddon, us
Defence M[inister, has issued orders for
the rapid mobilisation of a Tenth New
Zealand Contingent should its services
be wanted in South Africa, and there
seems little doubt--especially in view
of the Methuen reverse-that it will
now be sent. If tile demand sla made
there is every reason to think that the
Tenth Contingent will be got together
and sent away in record time.
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