"The class of boys has no doubt greatly increased of late years, and tends to demoralisation.

"The system of apprenticeship is based on the principle that the apprentice shall repay at the latter part of his service, when he becomes valuable, what he cost his master in the earlier part of his time, when he was valueless. But in practice, we know it too frequently happens that when an apprentice finds he is working for his master while boys in the same ship are earning good wages for themselves, he puts an end to his indenture by deserting, and, having once become infected with the disease, there is danger that it may become chronic. What seems to be necessary to counteract these evils is the creation of a mutual interest in the three parties to the bargain.

"The points to be aimed at appear to be

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(1.) Sufficient inducement for the apprentice to stick by the ship and serve out his time.

(2.) Sufficient inducement for the master and owner to overcome their present unwillingness to look after the welfare of the apprentices when in port.

"Unless we can satisfy these conditions, I have no great hope that the apprentices will be forthcoming when wanted for imperial purposes, and their need for imperial purposes is the only justification which can be pleaded for expending national money in their training. The former condition might perhaps be met by kind treatment, good food, and wages somewhat near his market value being offered to the apprentice. The latter by the remuneration of the master being made in some way dependent on his being successful in retaining the apprentices in the service of the ship."

The figures, supplied by the Registrar-General, furnish the amount of the shipowners' wants so far as regards apprentices. If the State compels them, without an

equivalent, to engage more, they would be justified in resisting any such measure, for, should the State require more, either for the Royal Navy or for Reserves, or for any other purpose whatever, it would be the duty of the State to provide them solely at its own expense.

I hope I have now clearly defined the basis on which I think all future schemes for manning should in equity be framed.

But before I attempt to raise any fabric on the basis I have named, I desire to address a few words specially to the shipowners, and I hope they will not take it amiss from one of themselves, who has throughout a long life devoted himself earnestly to their interests, though not always in harmony with their views at the time, and who has no interests to serve beyond their own, and the good of this great maritime country.

May I therefore be allowed to ask; Is it for their own interest to engage, to the extent they do, boys casually for the voyage, instead of for a term of years? I know I shall be met with the answer, "Of course it is, or we should increase the number of apprentices beyond what we at present employ. And what is the use of beating about the bush with such facts before you as those you have named ?"

Well, I must beat about the bush, for it requires beating about, as I am not aware that the truly important subject of manning has ever been earnestly and logically examined.

Shipowners say that they take boys for the voyage because they do not require to maintain them on shore when the voyage is ended; and that after they have borne the expense of training apprentices for the first year or two of their indentures, when they are of comparatively little use to them, these apprentices desert just when they are becoming useful.

These are, no doubt, stubborn facts, but cannot

the evils of which shipowners justly complain be remedied? Why do apprentices desert? They do so because, after they have been two years, or, perhaps, only one year at sea (and seldom for any other reason), they can obtain, as "ordinary seamen," 30s. or 40s. per month; whereas, as the Registrar-General of Seamen, in substance, justly remarks, they would not, under the conditions of their indentures, receive for the second or third year of their apprenticeship, one-half that amount of remuneration. Unfortunately, when apprentices meet youths of their own age, especially in our colonial ports where labour is in demand, receiving, as ordinary seamen, 40s. per month, when they are only receiving, perhaps, 15s., they overlook the fact that their employer taught them their duties when they were of little value to him, in the just expectation that he might be recouped when they grew older, and had more knowledge and experience; and, regardless of the consequences, having no object in view but their own interests, they desert the ship; but surely this can be remedied in a great measure, by the Legislature inflicting more severe punishment than is now enforced for so serious a breach of their agreement, or by shipowners taking the trouble to prosecute, which they seldom do. It is enforced, and very properly so, with the utmost rigour in all branches of trade on shore-why should it not be so in the case of dishonest apprentices engaged in seafaring pursuits.

We do not hear of master mechanics engaging halfand-half men in the different branches of their trade, such as ordinary seamen are in their avocations. The employers, as well as the skilled men, who have faithfully served their apprenticeship, are, for their own interests, alike opposed to all such engagements. The only difference between them that ever arises, is one I have already mentioned, the men object to their employers having more than a limited number of apprentices, for the very

illogical reason that too many skilled men are thus produced, who interfere with the monopoly which the existing skilled men desire to maintain.

But, let me ask the shipowners, who created ordinary seamen, or half-and-half men-who sent forth to distant ports boys to become inducements for their apprentices to desert? Why, the shipowners themselves, by preferring to take boys for the voyage, which frequently ends with the passage out, instead of apprentices for a term of years; boys who, becoming "ordinary seamen" much sooner than they ought to do, encourage their apprentices to desert to their own loss, and, I must add, to the loss of the nation, which is more interested in having trained and skilled seamen, than trained and skilled men in any other branch of commerce.

We have thus, at the present moment, through the shipowners' instrumentality alone, far too large a number of half-and-half, comparatively worthless, seamen, who are unfit for their duties in our Mercantile Marine, and who would be of little value as Reserves to the Royal Navy in the hour of need. My brother shipowners must not shelter themselves under the bush round about which I am now beating. They, I repeat, have to a large extent created the evil of which they now so loudly complain; and it is a terrible evil.

I conscientiously believe that far more vessels are lost, and that far more lives are sacrificed, through incompetent and untrained seamen than through "unseaworthy ships; " but while shipowners are to blame for having created the existing state of things, Government is now equally so, in not requiring that "sailors" incompetent for their duties shall not be allowed to proceed to sea, any more than unseaworthy ships.

If the principle of examination or certification of competency is sound in the one case, it should be more so in the other, as it is the greater evil of the two.

But if shipowners looked more closely to their real interests than they now do in such matters, the evil would soon be rectified, without the necessity of any legislative enactment; they would in their own interests engage an increased number of apprentices, and fewer boys, or socalled ordinary seamen, for the voyage, and would decline, as almost every other employer of labour does, to have any master, officer, or man who had not proved himself qualified for his duty. If they did so, the number of apprentices would soon be increased sufficiently to meet all our requirements, and obviate the evils of which they complain.

At present our shipowners engage apprentices where and as they please; but since the State, as a means of procuring honest employment for youths who were destitute, or who might otherwise become pests to society, encouraged the establishment of training-ships throughout the kingdom, supported by Treasury or educational grants, or other public funds, and by voluntary contributions, the shipowners have taken a number of apprentices, but many more boys from these vessels.

There are now ten Industrial and Reformatory Schoolvessels, all of which are discarded ships of war, supplied by the Government; and there were, by the latest returns 2,175 boys trained in these vessels.* As this is the most

*TRAINING-SHIPS FOR THE MERCHANT SERVICE. FOR FORECASTLE HANDS.