NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11521, 5 November 1900, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

It will be interesting if we compare the status and pay of German officers of the navy with those serving in the British marine. A German admiral of the fleet receives £600 per annum, » free ' furnished house, firing and light! £80 tor carriage hire, and table money and allowances an additional £900. His total income, therefore, is £1580 per annum. A British admiral on the home command receives from £3420 to £3967. The German captain's salary is £390, that of the Englishman £410 to £620. A German lieutenant in command has £195, an English lieutenant in the same position £201 to £274. A chief inspector of machinery afloat in the British navy has £639, in Germany only £330. A British fleet surgeon has £493 to £602, a German £390. It will thus be seen that the British officers, all through, are in a better pecuniary position than those in the German fleet. German marine officers are usually taken from the same rank as in England. Before becoming a midshipman or sea cadet, as he is called in Germany, the youth who intends to devote himself to the navv must be able to pass a satisfactory examination on tue level to which a fifth form boy at an Eng-

lirh public school has attained. His first year's service is spent in study and military exercises on shore, the study of the English language being a prominent part of his work. He is then placed on a trainingship for a year, and after passing a satisfactory examination he is removed to the marine school for another year. The technical knowledge obtained here is then employed for two years at sea, and should the candidate for the naval profession prove himself competent he is promoted at the end of those two years to the rank of lieutenant. During the first 10 years of a German naval officer's carcer his income falls short of his expenditure by a sum of £500 ; that is to say, in addition to his pay he requires, on an average, £50 a year to keep him. In the British service the average expenditure of an officer in addition to his pay is £95 a year.

It has been said that one of the effects of the individual self-confidence which is so general an attribute of Anglo-Saxons is to incline them to face marriage without calculating the cost. They have long had a different way of proceeding in France, where matrimonial unions are usually contracted with the utmost seriousness, and, as it were, on rigid mathematical lines. The dot, or dowry, has always been an important matter for the woman, and many French marriages are still strictly arranged at lawyers' offices. This at least is the rule among the better classes. A lady, however, has recently stated in a French newspaper devoted to the interests of her sex, that the dowry custom is destined to gradually die out in that country. According to her, middleclass families in a position to give important dowries to daughters are becoming rarer every day, owing to the difficulty of saving money, and also because investments bring in less at the present time than formerly, unless hazardous speculation be tried. The same authority says that twi results have followed from this condition of affairs. One is that there are at present many girls who will have to remain unmarried ? the other is that the rules of feminine education have been remarkably altered, and that girls who formerly learned only the ordinary accomplishments of their sex are now studying all those practical as well as ornamental subjects which may enable them to earn their own livings permanently if they mean to remain maids, and to assist husbands in keeping up establishments should they desire marriage.

When it was suggested that Japan be entrusted exclusively with the task of restoring order i.a China and liberating the Europeans there, attention was drawn tc the fact that Japan has an army which may be reckoned with as second to none. Its actual organisation is kept- secret, as is that of other armies; but some details are given by an officer who helped to reform it in th& Frankfurter Zeiturig. We summarise aa follows :—" On the whole, the Japanese army may be said to be modelled on the German plan. But it is to-day essentially a Japanese army, and even its armament is chiefly Japanese. Much of the artillery is still imported from Germany and France. The C. '98 field gun, however, with which the -whole army is now equipped, and the Meidji rifle, are Japan-made. The Japanese is divided into three army corps, with 13 divisions, 26 brigades, or 52 regiments of infantry, of three battalions each. This includes the division of the guards. There are 13 regiments of cavalry of five squadrons each, and 13 artillery regiments with 117 batteries. In time of peace, the army numbers 3155 officers and 84,241 men, to which are added in war 696 officers and 82,384 men. Thus the war strength is over 170,000. This does not include the militia and Landwehr, neither of which need serve abroad. They number 113,000 officers and men additional. The plans for mobilisation are undoubtedly the same as in the German army, and are likely to work with great rapidity. Twenty years ago, the Japanese army was still in a very backward state. To-day no foreign help is needed, either to organise or to command. The discipline is splendid, and of the courage of the Japanese soldiers there can be no doubt."