AUSTRALIANS AS SAILORS.

AUSTRALIANS AS SAILORS.

The opinion that Australians will not make sailors ends no favour with Captain Colin Macdonald, of the Currie liner Janus, who takes a deep interest in the training of lads for the mercantile marine.

He contend that the question has not yet been practically tested in a comprehensive and systematic way, but never the less a fair proportion of  Australian and New Zealand youths, when properly "placed", have shown an adaptability for the sea which ultimately led to their adopting the life as a profession, and becoming capable officers.  On barques of the Craig line, sailing from Auckland on the Union cadet ship Dartford, and on the Mauritius trading barque  C.J.S. excellent results have been obtained in this direction. Captain Macdonald believes that the satisfactory training of boys can only be carried out at sea, not on a vessel anchored within a stone's throw of the shore.

Captain Macdonald's experience of Australian boys is that a considerable percentage of them would gladly embrace a seafaring career if reasonable facilities were afforded them, and he points out that the number of boys who abandon the life after having once embarked on it is very small.