GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1 899. 379 
ed by two months, if the officers had previously been through a regi¬ 
mental course. 
(b) The special class could be abolished, which at present absorbs 
from eight to twelve officers annually. 
(c) The position finding class would be amalgamated with the re¬ 
gimental course, which saves another six to twelve men. 
(d) If there were no regimental specialists there would be more 
company officers to draw upon. 
Six months out of the period during which an officer is a Lieuten¬ 
ant or Captain say some eighteen years, is all that is required for the 
technical course, and another six months would provide for a good 
gunnery course for Garrison Artillery officers. On looking at the Re¬ 
gimental list, it appears that a great many officers go through a course 
of some kind, some have gone through two or three ; the training pro¬ 
posed would therefore not amount to any great increase in the time 
to be spent on courses. 
What is sought for is a scheme which would ensure a systematic 
course of technical training; at present one officer is instructed in 
electricity, another in steam and hydraulics, and so on, the result be¬ 
ing that each officer, works as it were only in a small circle and can¬ 
not take that broad view of the sciences which is necessary, if his 
knowledge is to be of any use. 
All officers would be equally well trained and capable of under¬ 
standing the principles upon which scientific instruments are based, 
and not only would they feel, that with regard to the materiel in their 
charge, they were no longer in the hands of a few specialists, but they 
would take an interest in discovering defects and imperfections and 
suggesting improvements which would eventually lead to vastly im¬ 
proved systems of defence. Again I do not think that there would 
be any scarcity of officers for the higher education as given in the 
Senior Class if all had been made to keep up their knowledge to a 
moderate standard—it is when officers have forgotten everything 
which they were taught as Cadets that they hesitate to plunge into 
the whole subject again. 
Are other countries alive to the advantages of education generally ? 
I do not think there is any doubt about this, taking Germany as an 
example, all her great commercial advancement during the past few 
years is generally ascribed to her systematic technical teaching—un¬ 
doubtedly the same spirit must be felt and recognized in the army 
and it would be well to see whether we in the service are keeping pace 
with these modem principles or whether we are inclined to lag behind 
as has clearly been the case with that portion of our civilian element, 
which goes to make up the great body of men in trade and commerce 
and who are now suffering Dy loss of influence in the commercial 
world from their neglect of that education which we are too fond of 
looking upon as only fit for school boys and theorists. 
It is not so easy to compare the system of education of one country 
with that of another, as it would seem at first sight. Unless one is in 
the country or has spent some time there and conversed with those 
who have studied the subject, one is dependent on short written de- 
