THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, february 13, 1908. OUR YOUNG SAILORS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13672, 13 February 1908, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, february 13, 1908. OUR YOUNG SAILORS.

The visit of the Amokura to our port will do a needed work in dispelling the too prevalent idea that the vessel is really a part of the reformatory system of the colony, and that the training of sailors is merely a subsidiary aim—a means to the accomplishment of its great end, the reformation of character. We are inclined to think that this false conception of the vessel's true mission is far more general • than some imagine. The original idea of at least some of those who, in Parliament and out of it, agitated for a training-ship was to provide machinery for dealing with children whom the magistrates had no option but to commit to an industrial school, but who, it was felt, were more likely to be contaminated than benefited in character by the associations they could not entirely avoid. It was thought that many who, by naval ttaining and discipline and comparative isolation from the temptations which abound on shore, might be made valuable assets to the colony were, through lack of such training, in a fair way to become drags upon progress, and for this reason Government was urged to equip a training-ship. The training-ship thus came to be associated in the common mind with an industrial school, and that industrial school with a reformatory, Arid the idea of a floating reformatory is unfortunately still the only one with which many associate the Government trainiug-vesriel. As truer conceptions of our Imperial responsibilities were attained, under the influence of the South African War and the complications to which it at times threatened to give rise, the Government patriotically resolved to have a training-ship, not to be used as a reformatory, however, but as an integral part of the defence system of the Dominion, to train naval cadets, an the counterpart of the military training given to boys at school, go that the young New Zealanders of to-day might in time to come prove efficient defenders of their country either afloat or ashore. After a lengthy delay the Defence authorities secured on favourable terms H.M. gunboat Sparrow, which had outlived its active usefulness in war, but which was well fitted for the purpose the Government had in view. Remodelled in its internal arrangements for its new work, suitably equipped, and recommissioned under a new name, the Amokura (or boatswain bird), she has been for over a year engaged in her useful work, and now gives Auckland people an .opportunity of seeing what eminently useful work it is. It is doing for promising lads in New Zealand with an inclination for sea-life precisely what the Challenger and the Pioneer and other trainingsels of the Australasian squadron are doing tor men. The love of the stia is inbred in boys of British stock. The thought of it fives their young imagination, their popular literature further inflames it, and. there are few

of us probably who in, our young days bad not some -formed ideas of going to sea, seeing the world, and nav.ng adventures ashore and afloat. 'There was thus, •at the outset, DO likelihood of a scarcity of training material for the Amokura. • £ he limited accommodation offered by the gunboat was soon at a premium. The authorities were thus able to take their pick of the applicants and to impose such cor.di of character and attainment as would minimise disciplinary troubles aboard, and greatly increase the ultimate valued of th? training received. Good sailors have often been made out of what was at first unpromising material, but the better that raw material is the better the sailor is likely to turn out. Every year makes intelligence more and more valuable as a part of the Jack-tar's outfit, as complementary to the higher demands continuously made on the intellectual equipment of the officers. To know "how" to know much, but the man who knows "why" as well as {f how" is infinitely more valuable than the man who does not. Accordingly in our training-ships the general education of the boys goes hand-in-hand with their mechanical instruction. They are taught how to do things, and why they have to be done in that), particular .way and not in some other. Technical instruction and lessons of the more ordinary type go hand-in-hand. In short, New Zealand is doing on a small scale just as thorough in its way what the British Government does on a large scale at Devonport and on thu Worcester and the Britannia No pain? are spared to make manly men and good typical British seamen, and a visit to the Amokura will, we do not hesitate to say, give ample evidence that a most valuable work ih these two directions is being done. The cruise now in progress is not a pleasure trip, but a well-considered part of what we may term the school course. Sailors have to learn out at sea in all sorts of weather to put in practice' the lessons taught in harbour. The cruise is thus at once a test of progress and of efficiency. By-and-by, no doubt, New Zealand will have her own vessels, manned by her own crews. Then the Dominion will reap a rich harvest from the seed now being sown. That day, however, is not yet. We hold that one of the most valuable contributions we can make to the defence of the Empire just now is the contribution of men and of personal service. To do this New Zealanders must be trained, and that training will certainly be more effective if the material is taken in hand early, when it is, comparatively plastic and easily moulded. The Amokura represents an earnest effort made in this direction. It is but a modest.beginning, but great results have accrued from such, and there is high authority for not despising the day of small things. The scheme is capable of indefinite extension as necessity demands it and the Dominion is able to afford the larger cost. Meantime a little leaven is working which will eventually leaven the whole lump. .A very little reflection will show that the training of naval cadets is no less important than the training of cadets in military matters. Indeed, considering that the sea is our first line of defence the work the Amokura is doing may fairly claim to be of even primary imrjoi'tanee. It is at any rate work the public should heartily encourage, and the visit of the train-ing-ship to our harbour can scarcely fail to deepen the interest of Aucklanders in it. The vessel is its own advertisement, and a visit to it will convince the most sceptical that it is doing work of an eminently practical and useful —formative, not reformative work, in which under the prevailing conditions no one need be ashamed to engage, and no parent need hesitate from fear of mora! contamination about allowing his son to engage in it.