I'd be quite interested in a Royal New Zealand Navy userbar. I realize the RNZN wasn't founded until 1912, and even then not as a fully independent navy until 1940, but I find myself thinking that the British government might have been more supportive of NZ's construction of vessels of their own in a world where Australia had a not-so-friendly divorce from the Empire. Historically, after all, HMS New Zealand was built by the government of New Zealand in 1909 to help bail Great Britain out from an escalating military situation. Sound like any scenario we might know? To quote Wikipedia, (granted not the best source, but it sums up the issue pretty well), "In 1909 Great Britain was having a naval and political crisis; Germany had expanded her naval programme and was speeding up the building of ships of all classes. On 22 March 1909 the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Sir Joseph Ward, made an offer to fund 'one first-class battleship, and if need be, two' as a gift to the Royal Navy. This offer was accepted by the British Government and the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand was built by Fairfield for £1,783,190."
Historically these were commissioned into the Royal Navy and brought up North for the preparation of the coming war in Europe. Given that, in the Leviathans timeline, the possibility exists of an angry Australia making trouble for His Majesty's Empire on the southern side of the planet, and cozying up to Germany, I would not be surprised if the New Zealanders might well have built more than just the 'one or two', and I highly doubt that the Imperial government would have taken them up north unless they absolutely had to. So, do you think I've justified the early existence of the RNZN?
