SEA CADETS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23256, 27 January 1939, Page 8

SEA CADETS

A suggestion of high value was made by Earl Beatty when in a speech this week he urged that the sea cadet movement should be developed in New Zealand. It is not entirely unknown in the Dominion, since Christchurch and Dunedin each has a corps, but, as has been correctly noted, they have had little public notice, while at the two most populous centres arid seaports nothing has been done to found bodies of the kind. The sea cadets of the Empire have a history going back substantially more than 30 years. Their organisation has been largely the fruit of voluntary effort, though they have been given both official recognition and some measure of practical assistance by the Admiralty; and, as ever with enterprises of this kind, former members of the Royal Navy, both officers and other ranks, have co-operated freely in training work. These are the facts of the position. They should be sufficient to suggest that in a country such as New Zealand, the movement, if given a more vigorous impulse toward life, would flourish. It does not need to be proved that the sea and all belonging to it draws the young New Zealander like a magnet. Opportunity alone is needed to have him an enthusiastic recruit for the cadet movement. The training given in boatwork, seamanship, signalling, marksmanship and the like, needs no commending to the average boy. So, by taking advantage of this natural inclination, much could be done to foster the maritime tradition, to give boys a healthful and fascinating pursuit, and to equip them to do invaluable service for their country should the need arise.