Mr. Ward Hunt's proposal for improving the status of the
Naval Engineers, when moving the Navy Estimates on Monday night, seems to be of the nature of a homceopathic reform. He proposes to increase their number by nineteen, on 1,218 now employed, and their pay by about £17,840, on the £205,000, or so, now given. He proposes to add some- thing to the pay of the superior inspectors and engineers, and also of the engine-room artificers ; and he proposes also to do what is possible to get candidates of good social stand- ing for the higher engineering posts, allowing a free competition among candidates previously approved by the Admiralty, and requiring them to pay £25 a year for their education during the first three years. But as far as we can see, Mr. Ward Hunt pro- poses nothing that will put the chief engineer of one of our great armour-clads on anything near the level of the higher navigating officers of the ship. His reform seems to be a beginning much in the sense in which the first yard is a beginning towards a walk of thirty miles, but hardly more.
Previous page
