Mr. Burns, "the largest owner of merchant shipping in the
world," proposes that lighthouse dues should be abolished, and shipping taxed, say, 3d. per ton, for the maintenance of ten training-ships, with 300 boys in each, which would cost about 160,000 a year. These ships, filled with lads whose friends thought them fit or inclined for the sea, would be nurseries of able seamen both for the Mercantile Marine and the Royal Navy,. boys so trained being decidedly preferred by captains to raw- lads. The recommendation is sound ; but might it not be greatly extended, and applied more exclusively to the service of the State? Suppose Government to establish training-schools for 20,000 lads—say one school in each of fifty-two counties—the condi- tions being that the boys should be well fed and well taught without expense to the parents, and repay expenses by giving ten. years' service to the State, of course on full pay? Would there be any unfairness in that offer? The lad would leave the Army or Navy at twenty-eight a skilled and competent man, probably with a large amount of saved pay, and Government would have a permanent nucleus for its fighting services. The scheme haa succeeded hitherto, why should it not be extended ?
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