Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/59

 1899.] The Navy Estimates. [51

(Antrim, S.), replied with regard to the demand for fuller infor- mation concerning [Russia's programme, that it was not desirable that everything in the knowledge of the Admiralty should be divulged. The programme of new battleships and cruisers had been drawn up with as full and perfect knowledge as could be obtained of the intentions of other Powers. It must be left to the colonial Governments to determine whether they would contribute towards the maintenance of the Navy. An admirable example had been set by the Cape, and he hoped it would be followed by other colonies. With regard to water-tube boilers, he observed that all great naval Powers were substituting such boilers for cylindrical boilers. The Terrible had been called a dismal failure, yet that vessel had done what no other warship in the world had ever done. She had steamed for sixty hours at a continuous speed of twenty iknots. Shipbuilding was not likely to be retarded in consequence of any deficiency in the supply of armour.

The Civil Service Estimates which for some years had been adding considerably to the public burdens in the way of cost of education, etc., showed this year a very moderate increase of 387,819/., as compared with an increase of more than a million and a half (1,624,678/.) in the previous year over 1897-8. The current year's estimates, however, showed for the first time the working of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1898, and the operation of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, the former entailing an additional initial charge of nearly 60,000Z. upon the Exchequer, whilst the latter measure relieved the estimates of the cost of pauper lunatics and the expenses of the Local Government Board to the extent of 244,000/. (represented by a charge of 282,000/. on the Consolidated Fund). Consequently for the purposes of comparison the net increase of the year's estimates was 571,604/.

Dealing with the various classes of the estimates, the Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Hanbury (Preston), explained that the completion or advanced state of certain public build- ings, such as the Becord Office and Hertford House, the transfer of expenses of lighthouses abroad to the Mercantile Marine Fund, and a reduced claim for consular buildings had consider- ably reduced the charges under this claim, but the requirements of the Public Offices (Whitehall) Site Act, the new buildings in connection with the Science and Art Department, etc., had absorbed much of the savings, and promised to become an increasing source of expenditure for some years. Class II. showed little variation, and called for no explanation. Under Class III. the largely increased business of the Land Begistry under the Land Transfer Act, 1897, accounted for a considerable portion of the rise — a great portion of which, as in Class II., was automatic. Class IV. (Education) continued to put forward the largest claim, and this year's total of over twelve millions showed an increase of nearly a quarter of a million over the

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