1292 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V 
It should ultimately in 1933 consist of 8 armoured and 10 
protected cruisers, 18 destroyers, 12 submarines and 4 dép6t 
and repair ships, involving a capital cost of £23,290,000, 
an annual charge after completion of £1,226,000 for main- 
tenance, 15,000 men for manning at a cost of £2,226,000, 
£40,000,000 for docks, and a total annual vote of £4,794,000. 
The plan seems bold and worthy of full consideration, but the 
number of men required is a serious consideration at a time 
when Australian prosperity renders it hard to attract men 
fo a life subject even to the most modified naval discipline. 
The Commonwealth ! Act, No. 30, empowers the Governor- 
General in Council to appoint a Board of Administration for 
the naval forces to be called the Naval Board, and to appoint 
and promote officers of the naval forces, and to appoint an 
officer to command the whole or any portion of the naval 
forces. The appointment or promotion of an officer is not, 
however, to create a civil contract between the King or the 
Commonwealth and the officer, a provision necessary in 
maintaining the right of the Crown or the Commonwealth 
to dispense summarily with the services of any officer. 
Officers are not to be promoted except provisionally, unless 
they pass the prescribed examinations within a prescribed 
time, which must not exceed eighteen months after appoint- 
ment, but the requirement of this section may be dispensed 
with by the Governor-General in Council in the case of 
persons who are officers of the King’s regular naval forces. 
Appointments shall be during pleasure, but an officer’s 
commission shall not be cancelled except for cause and after 
he has been called upon to answer in his own defence. 
Except in time of war, an officer may resign his commission on 
giving not less than three months’ notice. The seniority of 
officers shall be determined by regulations. Provision is 
made for appointment or promotion without examination 
for distinguished service, or for marked ability and gallantry 
on active service. Naval colleges and instructional establish- 
See Parliamentary Debates, 1910, pp. 4489-95 (Sen. Pearce), 5667- 
1601; 1650-3 (Mr. Hughes), 1653-7 (Mr. Cook), 1657-62, 1671, 1672. Act 
No. 18 appropriates £2.590,000 for naval defence.