§ The efficiency of the officers and men, judging from the reports received, and from the tests imposed during the past year, is very satisfactory. The manœuvres carried out after the Naval Review at Spithead, and the evolutions of squadrons abroad, resulted in unanimous testimony from the officers commanding that the standard of physique and efficiency of the Navy is exceptionally high. The conduct has been good, and there is a substantial reduction in sickness, invaliding, and deaths, the ratio of each being lower than last year and less than the average ratio of the last ten years.
§ The course of training and instruction, both physical and mental, through which the men pass seems to have most successfully attained its object; and the system of national and compulsory instruction, now in full operation, has so improved the education of the men that it has been found possible to curtail the number of schoolmasters afloat, and modify the educational arrangements on board sea-going ships.
§ Owing to the great reduction in the annual wastage of the Navy, the numbers borne last year were considerably in excess of the number estimated. The entries of boys have, therefore, been diminished temporarily. It is believed that without any further addition to Vote 1, it will be possible to provide all the officers and men required for the manning of the Australasian Squadron.
§ The mobilisation of the Fleet, by the commissioning of all available ships 1sat summer, was effected with no greater strain than that of suspending for the time being the educational classes in the gunnery and torpedo ships, and the employment of the Officers at the College during the Vacation, and when all the available ships were commissioned, there were still available a large number of coastguard men and marines, in addition to the naval reserves which were untouched.