THE SENIOR CADETS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 113, 6 February 1919, Page 5

THE SENIOR CADETS

NEW TRAINING SCHEME.

Some reference to the training to he given in future to the Senior Cadets was made by Sir James Allen in his reply to a deputation yesterday. . , , . The Minister said that he wished to ask for the sympathy and support of the deputation in hia scheme for dealing with the Senior Cadets. He was not a supporter of militarism, although it had .happened that he was in charge of a military Department. Tho new scheme was not essentially military, and he, knew of no scheme with greater opportunity for the improvement of-the moral fibre of the community than this one for the Senior Cadets. They would be instructed first in physical oxercises. Lec- . hires would be given to. the cadets m hygiene, and perhaps in sex hygiene, on duties of citizenship, especially in all that pertained to good health. He hoped that the Territorial system would be used also for the training of the young manhood of the country in citizenship. Instead of calling out the Territorials for night drills, ho proposed that they should be taken into camp for three or four months at the beginning of their course. He would promise that the mam object of the training would, not be military, but'would be to'moke the young men strong enough in moral fibre to resist the temptations of the world. For this purpose the very best instructors in physical training would be and by advice nnd example the men would be taught the ways of rectitude. He held that good, clean, physical health was the best preparation for moral health. One of the deplorable. features of the camps had been the vile language used by many of the men. Ho did not know the origin of it. So far as he could learn it did not come, principally from.the New Zealand born and bred men.

The Hon. J. A. Hanan, who was also present, said that he believed it to be his duty to support the 'proposals- of Sir ! James Allen in respect of the better training of the youth, and he would do so whatever the consequences might be, political or otherwise He agreed with the Minister of Defence that physical culture tended to promote moral health. He believed that something of the same sbrt would have to be done for the girls, and a scheme to be applied to them was being considered.