SEA CADET CORPS ARE ESTABLISHED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19046, 15 April 1930, Page 11

SEA CADET CORPS ARE ESTABLISHED.

SPECIAL FACILITIES PROVIDED FOR BOYS. Bovs who have a thirst for general Knowledge and a love for the sea will fi nr f vent for their ambitions in the Sea Cadet Corps which has been established in Christchurch. The corps is on a volunteer basis and is conducted on sea scout lines. Special facilities are provided for the boys to gain an experience of handling boats on river and sea, and of inspecting naval ships which at Lyttelton. It is considered that the training provided by the corps should fit a boy for entrance to the Royal Navy, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve or the mercantile marine. Any boy who has no desire to join any of these services may still be a member of the corps and enjoy the recreation of rowing, sailing, steering, swimming, signalling, camping by the «ea, physical training and the pleasant placing of drum and fife

Nearly forty boys are now enrolled, and the parades are held every Thursday at the Canterbury Rowing Club’s sheds from 6.30 p.mJtill 8 p.m. Enrolment may be made at any parade. The boys are now learning the art of handling the rowing club’s boats on the river, and later on will hold parades at the Sumner Estuary and at Lyttelton. At the latter port the corps has the use of a twenty-seven-foot ship’s boat given by the Union Steam Ship Company, and in which rowing and sailing will be practised. Each Saturday several of the boys are allowed to cruise round Lyttelton Harbour in the Deveron, the training vessel belonging to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and on Sundays there is generally a row on the river.

The corps in Christchurch, which is on the same lines as the Sea Cadet Corps in England, is under the charge of Colonel Y. S. Smyth, who hopes that the Navy League, which has donated £lO, will take the corps under its auspices, as is the case in England. Colonel Smyth states that the corps is following out the advice of New Zealand’s recent Governor-General (Sir Charles Fergusson) that every young New Zealander should have some acquaintance with the sea and ships.