NAVAL TRAINING FOR BOYS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8249, 2 October 1906, Page 5

NAVAL TRAINING FOR BOYS.

NEW ZEALAND'S SOHHJMB ALMOST COMPLETE. SOME PARTICULARS. New Zealand's first training ship, as yet unnamed, will be in nomra'ssiou before the end of this month, says the Post. The gun coat, formerly known as the Sparrow, has undergone an overhaul so oomrdete that it. extended even to taking out the steampipes for testing. £Tho trim and comfortahle-lcokiug ship has oow to be given tlie final coat of paint and finishing touches have to be made before h is ready to accommodate youths who wißh to be trained for the navy or merchant service. Success seems already assured for the scheme. „ The ship will take eighty boys, and applications made for places total 125. Of this number, thirty are of the correct age—namely, between lb}4 and 15>j>, while fortyfive have uot specified their ages, and the remainder are too old to be accepted. The- Hon. Colonel Pitt, Minister for Defence, who has taken a very keen interest in the training ship, interviewed recently, said tlat regulations will shortly be published. Boys requiring places on the ship will be permitted to spend a ween: aboard op probation, and they will undergo medical examination before being finally aooepted. The ship will go to sea in sumcer, visiting differing parts of the colony, and the boys will be given courses of training in eeamauship, gunnery, and engineering. Tnero will also be au opportunity for general education. The Minister hopes that within a year or oiahteen months of oomanning operations the ship will be able to turn out about thirty welltrained seamen, fit for naval or mercantile service.

CABLE NEWS.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.