N.Z. DEFENCE FORCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 March 1930, Page 9

N.Z. DEFENCE FORCE

NO COMPULSORY TRAINING? [per press association.] WELLINGTON, March 28. The announcement regarding the suspension of all further territorial camps this year is generally taken to mean the ultimate abandonment of the territorial system with .compulsory military training. Indications have long pointed to this ‘conclusion, and in official circles, short of a definite announcement which can only be published when alternative plans are ready, the end of the territorial system is taken for granted. New Zealand’s main defence system will in future be by means of aviation, and the country has already gone a fair way towards providing this voluntary alternative to the compulsory territorial system. Far more attractive than the old time infantry volunteering, aero clubs have been organised in all parts of the-Dominion, and despite the heavy cost of private flights for the minimum period required to secure an aviator’s ticket a large number of young men are undergoing tuition. When the Government develops, its alternatives to the territorial system the encouragement of aviation-will be found to be the principal feature, and there will be ample response, enabling an adequate programme of training aviators to be conducted in many parts of New Zealand. It is also understood that rifle clubs may profit from the changed defence policy, as necessity exists for marksmanship, and it will be desirable to encourage the younger men to take up this form of training. .Compulsory military training was instituted by legislation ffiy the Ward Government in 1909, the Minister of Defence at that time being the late Hon. Robert McNab, an bld volunteer, who declared in his strong advocacy of the territorial system that volunteer defence had completely broken down and was unable to meet the legitimate requirements of the country. There were then 21,000 volunteers, though the number of men in the country capable of bearing arms was 160,000. The total number of males coming under the obligatory clauses of the Act when it was passed was 87,601.