§ A considerable proportion of dockyard expenditure is absorbed in the periodical repairs of vessels in commission. A close scrutiny of the list of defects sent in by officers commanding ships, and forwarded for sanction to the Admiralty, showed that a certain amount of the work proposed to be done in the dockyards might have been performed by the carpenters and artificers forming part of the complement of the ship. In other cases, sufficient care had net been exercised in criticizing the list of defects before being sent to the Admiral Superintendent. The attention of officers has been directed to this practice by a Circular dealing specially with this subject, and which will be found in Appendix II.