GOING TO SEA.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20025, 5 September 1930, Page 17

GOING TO SEA.

PROSPECTS FOR NEW ZEALAND BOYS. ENQUIRY BY NAVY LEAGUE. Boys all over the Dominion who have ambitions to take up a seafaring life have been • writing to the various branches of the Navy League Jately with requests for advice,- The great majority of the boys whose letters have been received have desired information regarding the possibilities of securing a«i apprenticeship in the mercantile marine and with the object of securing this information the secretary of the Wellington branch ol the League, M- R Darroch, has made enquiries from the principal steamship companies whose boats visit New Zealand. The various replies received by Mr Darroch, forwarded from Wellington, were read at last evening's meeting of the General Committee of the Canterbury branch. With one exception they were unanimous in deprecating any enthusiasm amongst boys to enter the mercantile marine from New Zealand Mr J. H. C. Bond, Dominion Superintendent of the New Zealand Shipping Company, Ltd., Wellington, explained in the first letter read that deck boya required for the company's vessels were signed on articles at Home for the round voyage. If the deck boys were signed on in the Dominion it Would only bo for the voyage Home, and after that further employment could not be guaranteed. When the boys received flieir discharge in England they would have cqnsiderable trouble in obtaining a fresh berth, especially as they would be working in competition with a vast number of English boys. The Commonwealth and Dominion Line Ltd wrote to the same effect as the New' Zealand Shipping Company. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd gave a similar account of the position. They did not wish the League to infer, however, that the door Was altogether closed to New Zealand boys of a suitable type and age who wished to become'apprentices; but vacancies wore few in number, and they were dealt with by the London office. The Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, Ltd., said that they received many applications and did their best to place boys. * The correspondence was received.