15 AUGUST 1908, Page 2

On Sunday last the American Battleship Fleet arrived at Auckland

for a week's visit. The New Zealand Parliament had , adjourned on Friday in preparation for the event, and the correspondent of the Times says that no New Zealand town was ever so full of people as Auckland when Admiral Sperry landed. The Fleet arrived at the appointed time in spite of two days' bad weather, and it is worth noticing that the suspense of officials waiting for the arrival of important personages by sea is finally done away with by wireless telegraphy. The people of Auckland were aware of the exact position of the approaching fleet. On Monday a banquet was given at Government House, and we learn that "the keynote of all the speeches was peace in the Pacific." Admiral Sperry informed the Times correspondent that his reception bad been warmer at Auckland than any- where along the west coast of America. It certainly was enthusiastic. Peace, not only in the Pacific but elsewhere in the West, is exactly what the rise of the United States Navy ought to mean ; and we have no doubt that it will do so if mischief-makers are not allowed to represent that Navy as in some unnecessary sense a weapon to be used in a race-feud between English-speaking peoples and Asiatics.