SCHOOLS FOR SAILORS.

Auckland Star, Volume 304, Issue 304, 23 December 1926, Page 18

SCHOOLS FOR SAILORS.

(To the Editor.} Sir, —As a rule seamen are keen observers. Your correspondent "H.H." seems to be an exception, otherwise he must have noticed that only the sons of the middle-classes represent the mercantile fleet. If it were different we would have'had nautical schools years ago. Want of interest and combination place us at a disadvantage, and yet there is not a cJass of men who are more helpful to each other and willing to promote each other's welfare than sailors. Lord Brassey's knowledge of sailors cannot be very extensive, otherwise he would know that the best officers of the .merchant fleet crawl in, as he styles it, by the hawsepipe—they have pride of cast and desire to excel in doing things well. 1 do not desire to have our young seamen turned into doctors of science, but I certainly want them to know the why and wherefore, the same as the technical schools teach the mechanic the scientific part of his trade, neither more or leas.— I am, etc., OSWALD SCHULZE.