RECRUITING FOR NAVY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27098, 22 July 1953, Page 6

RECRUITING FOR NAVY

MANY APPLICANTS FAIL IN TESTS

EDUCATION AND MEDICAL FITNESS

Each time the Naval Recruiting Board .sits to consider applications for entry ‘into the Royal New Zealand Navy, it faces the prospect of having to turn away applicants because they do not reach the educational and medical standards required. Of the applicants who fail to qualify, 75 per cent, are medically unfit, and the other 25 per cent, lack the necessary educational qualifications. The board, which is at present sitting in Christchurch, had interviewed 21 applicants up to midday yesterday, but of this number, only 10 were passed physically and educationally fit. At the last sitting of the board in Christchurch, six out of the 28 applicants were accepted. Sixteen failed to reach the educational standard and the other six were graded medically unfit. Commander B. E. Turner, D.S.C., Director of Naval Recruiting and chairman of the board, said yesterday that 40 per cent, of the applicants for entry to the Navy had no secondary education. The percentage of those who failed to be accepted educationally was 20 to 30 per cent. Very few applicants who had secondary education failed to pass the educational tests. Improvement Noted

He had noticed a great improvement in the educational standards during the last two or three recruiting tours, and in some cases it was exceptionally high, said Commander Turner. The majority of those who failed to pass the education tests were' uhable to pass the arithmetic examination.’ The problems set in this test ranged from simple addition and subtraction to simple algebraic and trigonometrical problems.

Problems concerning the addition and subtraction of fractions often baffled applicants, Commander Turner said. He knew of cases where an applicant who was asked to subtract i from i had given a correct answer, but the same person, when confronted with the written problem, |-J, could not give the correct answer. Other applicants—usually those with no secondary education—found it impossible to divide a five-figure number by a single figure. Commander Turner said the standard of general knowledge was fairly high, but every now and then there was a "howler.” One applicant, when asked to name the Prime Minister of Britain, had written "Malenkov,” and another had replied “Bulldog.” The spelling of some of the candidates was also very poor, he said. Such words as “successful” were written as “sucksesful,” “period” as “pearid,” and "succeeded” as “suckseeded.”

Commander Turner said that any applicant who passed the medical examination could be classified as 100 per cent. fit. The examination was a very searching one, with special attention to eyesight. The great proportion of applicants who failed to pass the medical examination had some eye fault. If an applicant had the slightest eyesight fault, he was not accepted. The reason for this was that what might today be a slight eye fault might develop and progress to a major one. As each applicant accepted would go to sea eventually, the board could not afford to take chances because of faulty eyesight. For this reason, colour vision was also important, and serious attention was paid to this when applicants had their medical examination.

The general physical standards of applicants was good, Commander Turner said. Applicants who were not accepted usually fell into three categories— those with faulty eyesight, those with flat feet, and those with general debility. Number of Applicants The number of applicants seeking entry to the Navy was not so big in the South Island as in the North, said Commander Turner. On the present recruiting campaign, Christchurch was the last major centre to be visited in the South Island, and only 30 applicants had been accepted. So far in the North Island, 34 applicants had been accepted, and several of the major centres had still to be visited.

Some boys who did their compulsory military training in the Navy applied for permanent postings, but compared with the number of compulsory trainees, the number who adopted the Navy as a permanent career was small, said Commander Turner. The successful applicants will begin their training at H.M.N.Z.S. Tamaki, on Motuihe Island, nine miles from Auckland, in September. They will accept an engagement with the Navy for eight years from their eighteenth birthday. The recruiting board consists of Commander Turner (chairman), Instructor Lieutenant B-. A. Webster, Mr J. A. Cameron, senior commissioned master at arms, and Mr S. A. Higgs, M.8.E., senior commissioned wardmaster.