CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 10557, 6 March 1896, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

t [We are not rttponsibla for the opinion* expre»«p by correspondents. The miter's name, as a gjummtee of Rood faith, mast be enclosed in tht TRAININtToTsEAMEN. TO THE EPITOh. Sjr,— lt js pity that our legislators, are so remiss to the ra.p,st important master o f having a fair ratio of youths in this colony trained for seamen. Tho pass which things have been brought to, is simply this, that it is about as difficult for parents to get their boys entere-1 in this indispensable calling, as it possibly might be to got them a situation in the Royel Mint. Such is not surely what one should look for in a country having Buoh an elaborate sea board as that of New , Zealand, with no other highway to get at its nearest neighbors excepting over the briny waves. Well, as a speculation, would not this idea I am now about to broach be worthy of a little cons : deration on the part of our most potent lawgivers ? (Since, at the instance of Unionists, they have now reduced iho number of ship apprentices to a mere nominal figure) to establish training ships in these islands, so as to propogate hands to serve as required in tho Imperial ships guarding these coasts? The Admiralty, at Whitehall, one should think, would only be too willing to bid a paying figure per head, to secuie such ready-made-at-hand reinforcements, having had nothing to do with their several years' maintenance, their drilling, and tho expense of drafting them 1 over so many thousand miles of waterway. Of course it should bo stipulated that when the ships any of these Colonials had joined; came to be put out of cqmnqissio'n' asd paid off, ijh&} th,ey ah.ftu.Jd. have, the option of either rejoipips ox getting discharged, Sqcji a proposition, ought to make our Minister of Labour jubilant inasmuch as to_ make it a question- of carry or resign in the House, as nothing could reduce the number of labour applipanta to auoh an fitent.— l am, &0..