NATIONAL REGISTER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2645, 16 December 1915, Page 6

NATIONAL REGISTER

THOSE 34,000 THEIR REASONS FOR REFUSAL. The Prime Minister has received from the Government Statistician the result of the examination Mr. Fraser's staff have been making of the schedules of the 34,000 men who declared in the National Register'that they were not prepared to render to the State any service, civil' or military. Only a sample lot of- 500. cards have been examined. The examples wero takcu from cards belonging to names beginning with the letter A, for no other reason than that the.y were the first to be sorted. The staff is now. sorting all- the schedules into alphabetical order, and the extraction of all- the information, concerning the 34,000 men' will not be proceeded with until the sorting is finished. This means that the Government Statistician will not set about the task in earnest for about a week, and the total analysis will not be ready, -until about Christmas." It is suggested, however, that the 500 cards selected at random may be typical of the whole mass. The reasons assigned; by the men who have signed the cards examined for the answers given are- as follow:— Bad health, 75. t Bad sight, 25. Suffering from rheumatism, 37. Deafness, 17. Taricose veins,. 10. Bad. back, !T. > Indigestion. 8. 'Heart trouble, 5. Crippled foot, 14. Engaged in making military supplies,, 3. Religious and conscientious objec- . tions, 46. ■Financial reasons, 44. . Farm requires attention, 59. Business requires attention, 11. Awaiting conscription, 8. Family reasons, 4 Producers suould stay at home, 5. Enlisting in Australia and elsewhere, G. _ No reason stated, 97. In the schedules examined the following is a summary of the statements regarding health: — Very good 38 Good' 217 Indifferent 185 Bad .64 Total 504