892
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 52

The supply of clothes being in every way sufficient, the boys’ friends are requested not to furnish them with clothes of any description, as by the regulations boys are not allowed to receive them, and all such articles found in their possession will be confiscated. The clothes in which he joins the service can be returned to his friends or sold for his benefit.

On becoming a 1st class boy, he is granted a further clothing allowance of £2 10s. The pay of a 2nd class boy is 6d. a day (and for good conduct he can obtain an additional 3d. a week). A 1st class boy receives 7d. a day.

Boys can after six months’ service send money home to their parents and guardians at the following rates:—1st class boys, 8s. a month; 2nd class boys, 6s. a month. The diet is liberal, and is arranged as follows:—Breakfast: 4oz. corned pork (this ration may be occasionally fried); 8oz. soft bread; ¾oz. chocolate; ¾oz. sugar. Stand-easy, about 10 a.m.: 2oz. bread. Dinner: Sunday and Thursday—12oz. fresh mutton (roasted or baked); 12oz. potatoes; 8oz. flour; 1oz. suet (fresh); 2oz. raisins. Monday and Friday—12oz. fresh beef (roasted or baked); 4oz. soft bread; 12oz. potatoes. Tuesday and Saturday (sea-pie days)—12oz. fresh beef; 12oz. potatoes; 4oz. flour; ¾oz. suet (fresh); 8oz. mixed vegetables. Wednesday—12oz. corned pork; 4oz. soft bread; 12oz. potatoes; 4oz. split peas. Supper: 10oz. soft bread; ¾oz. tea; 1oz. sugar. Late supper: 4oz. soft bread with dripping. This dietary is not deviated from, except for boys on punishment diet, and in cases recommended by the medical officer, of boys newly raised or on the sick list.

Intoxicating drinks or tobacco are not allowed, but the money to which a first-class boy is entitled instead of grog is paid to him on his leaving the training-ship.

Instruction is given in seamanship (including boat-pulling and sailing, the use of the compass, and the use of the lead and line), sailmaking, signals, gunnery, gymnastics, swimming, and tailoring. Also, school instruction in—reading, writing (including dictation), arithmetic, geography. And voluntary study of a more advanced nature than the ordinary school course is encouraged.

Religious knowledge is given by the chaplain of the ship; but Roman Catholic boys, and others who have conscientious objections to the religious teaching, are afforded opportunities of attending religious instruction under their own ministers. On Sunday divine service is performed by the chaplain on board the training-ship. Boys who are not members of the Church of England attend at their own places of worship.

Each ship has a band, and boys are trained for the position of bandsman in the navy. Facilities are given for recreation both on board and on shore. Each ship has a large lending library of entertaining and instructive books. Games are provided, such as bagatelle, chess, dominoes, on board; cricket, skittles, football, and quoits, for the recreation-ground on shore.

The schoolrooms are thrown open every evening to enable the boys to read and play at games; also to write letters to their friends (to encourage which, writing materials are provided). Entertainments are provided both on board and on shore; and during the winter months lectures (illustrated by a magic lantern) are given twice a week.

Boys are taken for pleasure parties, and to suitable public entertainments, free of expense to themselves, as opportunities offer. Prizes are offered at all local regattas for competition by the boys in their boats. Boys have leave for the afternoon on Thursdays and Sundays, and (if privileged) on Saturdays. Long leave is granted twice a year—viz., three weeks in July and four weeks at Christmas. For boys living at a great distance, fares are assisted once a year. Return tickets, covering the period of the leave, are issued at very reduced fares by the railway authorities.

Each ship has its medical officers, whose duty it is to watch strictly over the health of the boys. Any cases of serious illness are treated at the naval hospitals.

After a year of training (and sometimes sooner) the rating of first-class boy can be obtained.

Special instruction is then imparted in gunnery and seamanship; the latter course takes place in a training-brig, and is framed so as gradually to accustom boys to active seafaring life. On completion of these courses boys become available for draft to sea-going ships.

PAY AND POSITION AFLOAT.

At the age of eighteen a boy can become an ordinary seaman; from thence he passes, as soon as qualified, to the rating of A.B., and can rise, as vacancies occur, to—Leading seaman, 2nd class petty officer, 1st class petty officer, chief petty officer, warrant officer, and to chief gunner and chief boatswain (commissioned officers). The pay is (the pay is always given for seven days a week),—

Ordinary seaman—Daily, 1s. 3d.; yearly, £22 16s. 3d. A.B.—Daily, 1s. 7d. to 1s. 9d.; yearly, £28 17s. 11d. to £31 18s. 9d. Leading seaman—Daily, 1s. 9d. to 1s. 11d.; yearly, £31 18s. 9d. to £34 19s. 7d. Petty officer, 2nd class—Daily, 2s. to 2s. 2d.; yearly, £36 10s. to £39 10s. 10d. Petty officer, 1st class—Daily, 2s. 2d. to 2s. 7d.; yearly, £39 10s. 10d. to £47 2s. 11d. Chief petty officer—Daily, 2s. 8d. to 3s. 4d.; yearly, £48 13s. 4d. to £60 16s. 8d. Warrant officer—Daily, 5s. 6d. to 8s. 3d.; yearly, £100 7s. 6d. to £150 11s. 3d. Chief gunner and boatswain—Daily, 9s.; yearly, £164 5s.

If a man remains in the service on completing time for pension, he receives 6d. a day, £9 2s. 6d. a year, in addition. Each officer, man and boy, is supplied with provisions; the value of this ration (estimated at the low rate of cost price to the Government) is 1s. a day. Numerous additions to the pay are made:—For each good-conduct badge, 1d. a day each; three badges can be obtained, 3d. a day. For gunnery and torpedo qualifications, 1d. up to 1s. 5d. a day. More than two-thirds of the seamen are in receipt of extra pay on account of such qualifications. Warrant officers’ extra allowances range from 6d. to 1s. 6d. a day. Besides the clothing allowances given to boys, a gratuity of £3 10s. for clothing and bedding is given on a man re-engaging after completing his first term of twelve years’ service, and a gratuity of £25 is given on promotion to warrant officer.

The superior places open to men are,—

In the service afloat—Leading seamen, about 1,230; 2nd class petty officers, about 1,300; 1st class petty officers, about 2,825; chief petty officers, about 390; chief gunners, chief boatswains, and warrant officers, 810.

In the coastguard—Commissioned boatmen, about 1,350; chief boatmen, 311; chief boatmen, in charge, 274; chief officers, 227; besides about 1,660 places as boatmen.

Leave is granted without deduction from pay, both whilst at home and after foreign service. In the latter case a long period of leave (as much as six or eight weeks) can be obtained. Arrangements are made to give every one his turn of home service.

Medical attendance and medicine are given free of charge; in cases requiring it, treatment in a naval hospital is allowed, full pay being continued for three months, with a slight deduction after the first thirty days.

An appointment to the coastguard can be obtained after about nine years’ man’s service in the navy, or at the age of twenty-seven. The remuneration in money is rather lower than in the navy, but the men live almost all the year on shore, and are provided with houses for themselves and families; they receive pensions, on completing the necessary service, on the navy scale, but need not retire till the age of fifty.

TRANSMISSION OF MONEY TO RELATIONS AND FRIENDS.

Great facilities are given for allotting or remitting money to the families and friends; besides this, savings-banks are established on board Her Majesty’s ships, and at Sheerness, Portsmouth, and Devonport Dockyards, in which interest on deposits is paid by the Government.

PENSIONS.

Every seaman of good character, if physically fit, can, if he chooses to do so, remain in the naval service or coastguard (thus being continuously employed) till the age of fifty.

He can, however, obtain a pension at an earlier age. Good service for twenty-two years from the age of eighteen entitles a man to this allowance; the amount of the pension varies, according to the conduct and the position filled, from £18 upwards. The average pension for men of all ranks is £31 a year.

A petty officer can obtain up to about £54 a year, with twenty-two years’ service, and a good deal more if he remains to the age of fifty.

Men whose conduct has been thoroughly satisfactory are eligible for good-conduct gratuities on discharge, up to £15. Men whose health fails before completion of their time can obtain pensions or gratuities. These depend partly on service and conduct, partly on the nature of the disability. Special consideration is given where the disability is caused by injury sustained on duty, or climatic disease. £22,000 a year is given from the funds of the Greenwich Hospital to augment small naval pensions, and to assist men in bad health who have been invalided after short service, or who are in possession of a war-medal. £76,000 a year is employed to grant to eligible pensioners additional pensions of 5d. and 9d. a day on reaching the age of fifty-five years and upwards. Warrant officers and chief gunners and boatswains are pensioned on a higher scale; £150 a year is the maximum attainable by a chief gunner or chief boatswain; £120 a year by a warrant officer. In addition to the ordinary pensions for service there are Greenwich Hospital pensions of £35 a year for chief gunners and boatswains, and of £25 a year for warrant officers.

ALLOWANCES TO WIDOWS AND CHILDREN.

The widows of warrant officers and chief gunners and boatswains receive pensions of £25 and £30 a year, and higher rates if their husbands have been killed or drowned on duty. The children of the above-mentioned receive