Mr. PIKE PEASEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, what was the value of our stock of naval stores and of naval ordnance stores for each year from 1903 to 1911; and whether the system of valuation in preparing these figures for the Navy Estimates was the same for each year?
§ Mr. McKENNAfurnished the following figures:—Actual value of stock (Vote 8) on the 31st March of each of the financial years 1902–3 to 1909–10. The corresponding information for the year 1910–11 will not be available for some time.
Naval Stores. Transferable gun mountings, auxiliary machinery, steamboats, etc. Fleet coaling store (Vote 8, See. IIK.) Subheads A to F. Steam vessel coal, patent fuel, oil fuel, etc. Lubricating oils, coal sacks and cloth for. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) £ £ £ £ 31st March, 1903 … 3,914,092 1,238,324 578,498 Included in column (2) 31st March, 1904 … 4,116,961 1,181,462 737,178 Included in column (2) 31st March, 1905 … 4,547,721 1,230,761 804,817 Included in column (2) 31st March, 1906 … 4,667,637 1,171,633 737,572 Included in column (2) 31st March, 1907 … 4,616,949 1,247,608 782,320 276,368 31st March, 1908 … 4,016,949 1,061,175 892,302 296,049 31st March, 1909 … 3,685,616 1,011,514 857,485 283,418 31st March, 1910 … 3,750,845 980,353 875,501 342,411 Prior to the year 1906–7, lubricating oils, coal sacks, etc., were regarded as ordinary naval stores, and their value is included in column (2), but at that date were transferred to the Fleet Coaling Service (Vote 8 to II.K), and the value is as shown in column (5). The system of valuation was the same for each year.
Actual value of the stock of naval ordinance stores (Vote 9) for financial years 1902–3 to 1909–10. The information for the year 1910–11 is not yet available:—
£ 31st March, 1903 14,655,734 31st March, 1904 14,761,084 31st March, 1905 14,555,147 31st March, 1906 13,638,319 31st March, 1907 12,912,548 31st March, 1908 12,727,976 31st March, 1909 12,041,464 31st March, 1910 11,887,294 The system of valuation was the same for each year, except that since 1905–6 guns have been assessed on a depreciated valuation.