NEW ZEALAND'S BOY SAILORS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9180, 1 September 1908, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND'S BOY SAILORS.

Speaking of the Arnokura training ship in the House of Representatives, the Hon. J. A. Millar said that the Department pursued a policy by which discipline would be at all times observed. He was not going to have the ship used as a reformatory by parents who could not control their children, and who, after having the boys on the ship for twelve months, wanted them home again. He wanted the regulations amended so that the boys would remain on the ship, or the parents would be compelled to pay the cost of the training. The State was under a big expense with this ship, the city boys being trained at a cost to the State of £5,000 per year, which figured out at £BO per year per boy. There was no return. A smallrate of pay was issued, equivalent to Id per day at

first, then 2d per day, and ultimately 4d per day. The Department got no recovery, and he objected to the ship being used for any purpose other than the training of the boya for the sea. At present there was no room on the Amokura, and the Government was negotiating with the Home naval authorities for the purchase of an obsolete war vessel, which would permit them to undertake the training of a larger number of boys.