NAVAL COLLEGE

Hokitika Guardian, 23 December 1929, Page 8

NAVAL COLLEGE

AUSTRALI AN PROBLEM. ENORMOUS COST. SYDNEY, December 12. The cost of training naval, cadets at the Jervois Bay Naval College is out of all proportion to the service which the college renders to Australia, and for that reason tne Federal Government, which has embarked on ah economy policy as far as Defence matters are concerned, is talking about closing it altogether, or else drastically reorganising it. The Royal Australian Naval College was established temporarily in Geelong (Victoria), and was transferred to the permanent quarters at Jervois Bay, adjacent to Canberra, in 1915 It has a capacity of 160 cadets, and the bourse at the college is of four years’ duration. Thus it began with 30 boys for the first year and received 30 boys in each of the succeeding years till it had 120 cadets, which remained the complement for some years. Nowadays only a dozen are reveived each year, for that nubmer is sufficient to provide the officers needed for the Australian Squadron. Still the overhead cost has gone on all the time. Finally came the time when the staff and employees'exceeded the number of cadets. It is generally admitted that the maintenance of the college at Jervois Bay is expensive, and Melbourne people, who still dislike the Canberra idea, blame its isolation. Sydney says that the situation is all right and the management all wrong. It does not matter much who is right. The fact remains that in all there are 14 naval officers and 194 naval ratings at Jervois Bay. These include eight engineroom artificers, 18 stokers, four leading stokers, two stoker petty offices l besides other ratings for the working of the power plant alone. Then there are cooks and stewards and others, bringing the total number to 127 men. Besides these there are temporary civilian employees—22 gardeners, chaffeurs, and so on. Then there are eight masters on the professional staff, and, of course, the naval officers are instructors of the cadets. And SO I it is that the costs have mounted up out of all proportion to the results that are secured from this great college, which, it must be admitted, his turned out some particularly bright naval officers who have earned a high place in the navy. One suggestion is that the college should be thrown open to all sections, and that the boys should be trained for civilian life as well as for the Navy. The Government is in a quandary, but is determined that there will lie some sort of reform, even if it involves the complete closing of the college.