The annual statement of the Admiralty was issued last Saturday.
The gross estimate of expenditure, which amounted last year to £26,594,500, reaches a total of 227,522,600, or an increase of 028,100. The number of men voted is 114,880 (au increase of 4,240). It is satisfactory to learn that negotiations are on foot with a view to a thorough development of a Naval Reserve system in the Australian Colonies and Canada. The paragraph on transport service states that since July one hundred and eighty-one transports and freight ships have been engaged in the conveyance to South Africa of 132,384 officers and men, 23,345 horses, and 26,364 mules. Turning to new construc- tion, the First Lord points out how "abnormal activity in shipbuilding and engineering," with its attendant difficulties in the delay of delivery of material and supply of workmen, has caused the aggregate earnings for contract work to fall short of the estimate by no less than E1,440,000.
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