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GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1899. 
There are no less than seventeen treatises and manuals on various 
technical subjects and many of them large works containing a vast 
amount of information in material generally and in scientific subjects 
But with the exception of those who are going or have been through 
courses the contents of these books is matter of little interest to offi¬ 
cers of the Garrison Artillery, for the reason that they have not been 
forced to keep up the groundwork of that technical knowledge which 
they learnt at the Royal Military Academy and without it the books 
are uninteresting and heavy reading. 
Granted that technical education is necessary for the offi¬ 
cers of a scientific branch of the service like the Garrison Artillery 
then for purposes of instruction officers can be divided up into two 
main classes, those who elect to take appointments in the manufactur¬ 
ing departments, inspection staff of the Army Ordnance Department 
or in similar branches of the service; and those who prefer to remain 
for most of their service as purely regimental officers. With regard 
to the first class, little need be said, they are nearly all men who have 
passed through the senior or firemasters* course, or else have shewn 
that they possess special qualifications for this kind of work, they are 
in fact men with considerable technical training. The education pro¬ 
vided by these courses is necessarily limited by the time allowed, only 
main principles can as a rule be attempted and an officer after taking 
up an appointment will still have much to learn, but he should have 
a foundation on which to work and without which he would be incap¬ 
able of expressing opinions likely to be respected by scientific men. 
With regard to the regimental officer I have already endeavoured to 
point out that from the general standpoint of “ pure education ” it 
must be an advantage in all classes of life to have to deal with scien¬ 
tifically trained men, and an especial advantage to the State in the case 
of its Garrison Artillery officers, whose duty it is to take the lead and 
point the road which improvements in warlike stores must follow. 
In addition to this, other reasons of a more regimental nature can be 
given, why Artillery Officers should be technically trained. What are 
the objections raised to Courses of Instruction for Regimental officers ? 
It may be as well to state some of them at once. 
Firstly—It is said that the first duty of a regimental officer is to 
his men ; to attend to their drill, training and instruction of the com¬ 
pany, study discipline, interior economy and so on, and if he carries 
out these duties properly, it is as much as can be expected of him. 
Secondly—If they are given a course of instruction in Electricity, 
Steam, Hydraulics, care and preservation of mountings, guns etc., they 
would soon forget all about it, because they would never make any 
practical use of their knowledge, there being specialists of all kinds 
told off to do this work. 
Thirdly—For fear of doing damage, or for fear of causing friction 
with some other department, no officer will interfere with any portion 
of the armament or endeavour to repair a damage if he can possibly 
avoid it. I propose now to dispose of these objections seriatim , shew¬ 
ing at the same time what advantage would accrue from the training 
of regimental officers. 
Row called Ordnance Course, 
