Navy Rejects Two Among Every Three Applications

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28257, 20 April 1957, Page 10

Navy Rejects Two Among Every Three Applications

Two-thirds of those who seek to enlist in the Royal New Zealand Navy are being rejected, mostly because they are medically unfit or fail to satisfy the Navy that they have at least the equivalent of Standard VI educational qualifications. “The number of fourth formers •who cannot do the tests is astonishing,” said the Director of Naval Recruiting (Commander M. C. Ashdown) in Christchurch yesterday. Spelling was the commonest fault, he said. Ages of applicants are from 15 to 21. About half are schoolboys. From January 1 to April 15 there were 112 provisional acceptances lor the whole of New Zealand. “But the standard of lads we accept is very good, and I have seen some really first-class youngsters throughout the 15 months of my appointment,” Commander Ashdown added.

The latest information available about rejections concerns North Island boys, 88 of whom have been provisionally accepted by the Navy this year. Of the rejected applicants 78 per cent were turned away because they did not come up to the Navy’s standards in attainment tests; 6 per cent, because they were medically unfit; 5 per cent, for optical unfitness; and 11 per cent, because they were "unsuitable.” The educational, or attainment, tests comprise English, mathematics, and general sciences as subjects, "with a form of intelligence test thrown in.” Various branches of the Navy require varying marks in different tests to gauge suitability for the branch. For instance, boys wanting to go into the electrical branch must get a minimum mark in matheand if they do not they will be rejected even if their over-all marks for the tests are higher than the over-all minimum.