MILITARY SCIENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 43

MILITARY SCIENCE.

NEW ZEALAND'S POSITION. RECOMMENDATIONS TO UNIVEIiSITY SENATE. The question of teaching- military scienc3 at the colleges of the New Zealand University, which has been receiving the earnest consideration of the Military Committee formed in connection with Victoria, College, will be given greater prominence and importance by Lord Kitchener’s utterances at Sydney: The country on its part should snipper t the defenders by showing pride in them; by insisting upon the abolition of all that savours of sham and uselessness, and by supplying- the means to them to study thoroughly and ground themselves in military duties by the provision of carefully considered necessities to ensure an efficient equipment of training in readiness for war. The Military Committee of Victoria College drew up certain recommendations on this subject, and submitted them to the four Professorial Boards. These recommendations have been approved by Auckland and Canterbury Colleges. Otago and Wellington Professorial Boards have noc yet replied, owing to the holidays intervening, but it is confidently expected that their answers will be favourable to the course suggested. It is proposed to send the following recommendations to the University Senate for consideration at its next meeting ; 1. Military science (o be an optional subject for the arts course. 2. A Chair of Military Science to be established at each of the four University Colleges. The Government to bo anproaohed to provide a sum not exceeding £3OOO per annum to cover salaries. 3. In ISO 7 the War Office brought before the colonial Premiers, then in England attending the Imperial Conference, the question of the advisability of colonial universities .affording facilities for the study of military science. A large proportion of candidates offering- for commissions in the Regular Army have for some years been drawn from Horn© universities, and the supply from this source is increasing. 4. Chairs of Military Science at Sydney University and at M‘Gi!l University. 5. A Professor of Military History has lately been appointed at. Oxford, and a third of the subjects taken for the B.A. degreo may be military subjects. 6. A suggestion was made to the New Zealand University Senate in 1908 that military drill and efficiency with the rifle be allowed to count as an optional subject for the arts course. This seems duo to a misconception, and is undesirable from an. academic and educational point of view. What is required is facilities for obtaining tuition in the higher branches of military science, not in drill and other merely elementary branches. The syllabus should include: Military, History, Strategy, Tactics, Military Geography, Military Engineering, Administration, Organisation, Military Law.

MEANS OF TRAINING.

PROVISION ESSENTIAL. “ New Zealand is moving in the direction of creating an army,” said one of the members of the Victoria College Officers’ Training Corps who is interesting himself in the matter to a New Zealand Times reporter, “ and it behoves her to set about providing means of training for those who will officer it. The average' officer of our present volunteer corps knows about enough to enable him to manoeuvre a company in a drill shod. This is one of the great weaknesses of our present defence system. It is not the officer’s fault. He has practically no opportunity of acquiring efficiency—of studying the science of his ‘ profession.’ At the Officers’ Club he may hear an occasional lecture, it is true, but no system is followed aV'd no thoroughness is attempted. Knowledge of military strategy _is ait essential part of any officer’s equipment How many know even the ABC of it?’ And you think the university is tbs place to teach it? “Well, it’s this way: At the university you have the coming brains of the country. There you have the most likely material to work upon. We ask that whilst, attending the university those whose bent is in that direction should have the opportunity of obtaining a thorough grounding in military science.” And you don’t think it would mean any undue interference with the ether work of the college? “ We recognise that objection, but what we say is that the study of military science involves mental training to as great a degree us many other subjects—mental science, for example. What we want the Senate to do is to make it an optional subject for the arts course. This is already done at Oxford and, I believe, at other universities. Then it would be competent for students to choose it as an alternative to some other non-essential subject. Taka ,a Jaw student. English and mental science are optional subjects with him. By substituting military science we maintain that ho would get just as good mental training. Not only that —he would be turned out a better citizen, probably, than he would have been had his studies been exclusively bookish.” And the cost? “We estimate that £3OOO would place four professors on an equal footing with their confreres. On the staff of the British army first-class men draw £6OO to £7OO a year, and were the New Zealand University to offer £7OO wo believa the very best men available could' be got.”