Towards the end of the eighties interest began to be taken in Australian naval defence, and five cruisers and two torpedo gunboats were ordered for local Australian service while borne on the Royal Navy List. Of these vessels the five cruisers were the _Katoomba_ (ex _Pandora_), _Mildura_ (ex _Pelorus_), _Ringarooma_ (ex _Psyche_), _Tauranga_ (ex _Phœnix_), and the _Wallaroo_ (ex _Persian_), all 2,575 vessels of the old _Pallas_ class, of which at the time of writing the _Philomel_ still exists. These ships had a designed speed of 16.5 knots, a protective deck, and an armament of eight 4.7-inch and some smaller guns. The torpedo gunboat _Boomerang_ (ex _Whiting_) and _Karrakatta_ (ex _Wizard_) belonged to the _Sharpshooter_ class, and were lent under the same conditions as the cruisers. In the course of time all of them wore out and were eventually recalled. Coincident with this the Australians commenced to have a revived interest in Imperial defence, and in the year 1905–6 Australia and New Zealand contributed £240,000 to Imperial naval defence, and a project was put forward for the building of eight destroyers and four torpedo gunboats for Colonial Defence purposes. A few years later this project took a more definite shape, and about the year 1910 the battle-cruiser _Australia_, a sister of the _Indefatigable_, was ordered. As part of the same programme, three protected cruisers of the _Dartmouth_ type, the _Melbourne_, _Sydney_, and _Brisbane_, were also ordered. Previously to this, three destroyers of the _Paramatta_ type had been commenced, and in 1911 three more were ordered, thus forming a nucleus of a serious Australian Navy.[40] New Zealand’s interest in the Imperial Navy may be said to have commenced about the year 1900. It eventuated in paying for the battleship _New Zealand_[41] of the _King Edward_ class, which was laid down in September, 1903. An old gunboat of the _Magpie_ class was purchased, re-christened the _Amokoura_, and used for training purposes, while to replace some old torpedo boats, which had been sent to New Zealand about the same time as similar boats went to Australia, three destroyers of the _Paramatta_ type were ordered. Finally, an offer from the New Zealand Premier to supplement the Dreadnought efficiency of the British Navy culminated in the battle-cruiser _New Zealand_, which was offered to be provided about the same time or a little before Australia offered a similar vessel.[42] [Illustration: BATTLE CRUISER “NEW ZEALAND” ON THE STOCKS--1912.]