DEFENCE ACT

Evening Star, Issue 14414, 9 July 1910, Page 2

DEFENCE ACT

THE GOVERNMENTS PROPOSALS. [Fnon Onn Paexmmiotakv Ri-roKTim.] WELLINGTON, July 9. The principal feature of the Defence Amendment Pill, brought down by Governor’s" .Message last night, is a provision that every member of the Territorial Force shall, on. attaining the ago of twentv-five, he drafted into the* reserve. It is also provided that on application. any officer, warrant officer, or sergeant may, if approved, bo permitted to continue in the force, but not beyond the prescribed ago for retirement The paragraph in the principal Act giving Hie Governor )>o\ver to appoint a command,a it is widened. I hat odicer, it- is proposed, may bp appointed ‘Tor the organisation, discipline, training, and 'efficiency of tha forces,” and the Governor is also empowered to appoint- such Taft as may be necessary ip assist. the commandant.- Section 12 of the Act of last year provided fur the- establishment of a Council oi Defence A clause in the. present Rill provides for doing away, with the Council and substituting tho .commandant. Section 25 of tho principal Act sets ..cut that the complement of the forces was, if necessary, to be made up from tho general training section “either by ballot or m (he prescribed manner.” A clause in this year's Bill eliminates the ballot and leaves the system and .selection to bo prescribed. An amendment of the Act is also proposed in tho caso of men liable for service from eighteen years and upwards. The new proposal roads; “That- all male inhabitants who have* resided in tho Dominion for six months, and are British subjects, shall be liable to bo trained’ 1 from eighteen years of age, or from any later date on which they "cease to attend" a. secondary school, to twonly-fivo years of age in the, general imining section or the Territorial Force- in the case of their transfer to that force, and from twenty-five years to thirty years of ace in the reserve."' Rower is given to tho Minister of Education, at the request of the controlling authority, to take over the control of the hoy scouts. When so taken over they will "form a separate branch of the junior cadets, and be known as the “Scout Cadets,” and be subject to the provisions of the principal Act- so far ac (bey relate* to junior cadets, except that they may servo" up to eighteen years of age, when they must, he drafted into the general training section. The compulsory training in tho senior cadets in any one year is' not to succeed sixty-four hours.

The Bill also provides that when, except in time of win. an officer or non-commis-sioned officer is dismissed ho shall have a right of appeal to a Board of Appeal, to consist of the Chief Justice, or some other Supreme Court Judge appointed by Hie Chief Justice, and two officers of a, rank not lower than that of colonel. This eeclion—and it would appear that this provision will meet the Knyvrtt ease—is to evt-md and applv to all dismissals made during the twelve months preceding the parsing of this Act, as well as to subsequent dismissals. Capitation allowances are to be paid to the officer commanding the corps, to be held by him as the property of Hie corps, ■md implied in defraying such incidental expenses of the corps as. are authorised' by regulations. All accounts of corps are to bo audited by the i uditor.