The total tonnage
of the vessels in commission and in reserve amounts to 31,795 tons, armed
with the most modern weapons, and carrying crews numbering in the
aggregate about 3000, while the naval establishment at Garden Island (so
called because about a hundred and twenty years ago it was used as a
vegetable garden for the crew of the _Sirius_) is now one of the most
important British naval stations.
Seven of these war vessels belong to a special squadron, the maintenance
of which is partially paid for by the colonial governments; and, by
agreement with the Imperial Government, the ships are to be employed in
Australasian waters solely for the defence of Australia and New Zealand.
Besides this force, most of the colonial governments maintain a naval
reserve of their own, highly efficient, perhaps, as a land force, but,
owing to the lack of vessels and of money, scarcely to be considered
seriously of value as a naval defence force.
The merchant shipping trade of Australia, measured by the entering and
clearing returns from all Australian ports, now reaches about 18,000,000
tons annually, of which about one-third is entered or cleared from the
ports of the mother-colony. The returns do not separate purely local
tonnage from the other shipping of the British empire, but out of the
above 18,000,000 tons some 16,000,000 tons are classed as British, and
Australia as a whole contributes no mean proportion of that amount.
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