NAVAL REFORMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2546, 31 December 1902, Page 73

NAVAL REFORMS.

TRAINING AND PERSONNEL OF THE NAVY. INCREASES IN PAY.

LONDON, December 25.

Lord Selborne, in • a memorandum dealing with the proposed scheme of far-reaching reform in the training and personnel of the navy, remarks that formerly it sufficed if the naval officer was a seaman, but now he must be a seaman, a gunner, a soldier, and a man of science. The Admiralty had therefore decided that all executive, engineer, and marine officers must, begin their cadetship at the age of 12 to 13, and undergo an identical system of training until they were sub-lieutenants. "When .about the age of 20 they would be distributed between the executive, the engineering, and the marine services, the three branches representing the essential fighting efficiency of the fleet. Engineer students' hereafter would be designated engineer cadets, assistant engineers, engineer sU-b-lieutenants, and so y up to post-engineer, rear-admiral, and engineer vice-admiral. In connection with navy reform, the cadets are to spend four years on the training ship Britannia, three on a seagoing ship, and afterwards three months in the Naval College, Greenwich, with an examination. This is to be followed by a six months' course in the Portsmouth gunnery, torpedo, and engineerj ing schools, for which there will be fresh examinations. The change in system is to be gradual. Engineers are to receive increased pay and wear similar uniforms to combatant J officers. The ro3 r al marine officers will benefit by the increased emoluments, | and will be required to take a greater share in the general work of the ship.

The Times, commenting, says that it is one of the most important Admiralty documents ever issued in a time of peace, and is entitled to respectful and sympathetic attention. It removes the evil resulting frorr a dissimilarity of training, reserving the specialisation of careers until each cadet is certified to be competent to act as an officer on watch, and restores that homogeneity by an interchange of ability in the working parts of a warship which had disappeared when niasts and sails were displaced in favour ol the most complicated assemblage of machinery the world has seen.

Commandants in the Royal Marines from April next will receive 12s a day, which will correspondend with the command money of captains commending naval establishments ashore, and second commandants 5s a day. Sixty appointments will be reserved for lieutenants promoted from the lower deck. Chief petty officers receive an. extra halfpenny ( ? ) a day. The total -increase in the estimates will be £73,000 annually .

Tho unexpected warmth early Rifs week caused tribulation to quite a number of cyclist-5 in AVcllington. Blown-out tyres were quito common, and as a result of this state of affairs the cycle outfitting shops wero particularly busy.