One hundred years ago, Britain’s Royal Navy was threatened by
the modern fleet being built by Germany. In March 1909, the New
Zealand Premier, Sir Joseph Ward, responded to the defence
crisis by promising that New Zealand would underwrite a ship for
the Royal Navy. He declared: ‘We distant sons desire to stand in
any peril beside the lion mother of our race’. People around New
Zealand devoted themselves to fund-raising for the ‘gift ship’ –
HMS New Zealand. They also raised moneys for gifts to present to
the ship’s crew. In 1913, interest was still intense and around
500,000 New Zealanders flocked to inspect the ship when it
toured the country for 10 weeks. HMS New Zealand was an awesome
sight; one visitor described it as ‘a monstrous vessel … – a
grim and formidable fighting machine.’ But this monstrous vessel
had a monstrous price tag – the equivalent of $231 million. Go
to Collections Online for more details about this ultra-
expensive fighting machine, plus related objects and images held
in our collection