CANDIDATES FOR THE NAVY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 126, 30 May 1934, Page 6

CANDIDATES FOR THE NAVY.

"With reference to the failure of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy to attract suitable recruits, "Modern Idea" appears to have hit the nail on the head. If this Dominion is to enlist the type of lad the privileged commissioned rank considers suitable, presumably-'; measured by its own yardstick, it must give the candidates the assurance that not only the ! warrant rank, but the highest ranks, are open ; to him. Under the present system one supposes ' a parent having the advantages of money and influence is in the position to send his or hsr son to England and to one of the naval colleges, where, after a period of training, he will return to this country as a commissioned officer on board one of the ships of the New Zealand Division. Not so the youth whose parents are less fortunate, but none the less . of equal standing in citizenship. If money and influence are the prime factors in tlie officering of the Dominion service, then the system is not only wrong, but the probability zone for suitable candidates is limited to a fraction per cent of our above-the-average-in-ability population. COMMISSIONED.