Defence Training Deferment: Local Tribunal Set Up

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23154, 17 January 1950, Page 4

Defence Training Deferment: Local Tribunal Set Up

Military service postponement committees have been appointed under the Military Training Act, 1949, to deal with applications from young men who for any reason desire to defer their entry into camp under the provisions of the defence-training plan. The personnel of the Gisborne committee will be Messrs. L. C. Parker, chairman, H. D. C. Lange, and W. Harnett, with Messrs. J. G. Nolan, F. Tolerton and C. J. Hayden as their respective deputies. A Press Association message received overnight from Wellington stated that the Minister of Employment, Mr. W. Sullivan, had announced the personnel of 17 committees to be established throughout New Zealand.

Little Travelling’ Involved The Minister stated that generally the chairman of each committee and his deputy were men with legal training and experience; one member and his deputy were representatives of the employers, and the other member and his deputy were representatives of the employees, having regard to the principal industries carried on in each locality. The Minister said that certain applications for postponement might be dealt with by the Labour and Employment Department, so that the duties involved in the appointments to committees should not require an undue call upon the time of members. The number of committees had been decided on principally for the convenience of applicants and to reduce to the minimum the amount of travelling necessary to dispose of hearings. Gisborne Committee Personnel The nominated chairman of the Gisborne postponement committee, Mr. L. C. Parker, is in legal practice in Gisborne and is a veteran of the First World War. His deputy, Mr. J. G. Nolan, is also in legal practice, and commanded the First Battalion, Hawke’s Bay Regiment, during its training in New Zealand between 1941 and 1944.

Mr. H. D. C. Lange, who has been selected as the employers’ representative on the Gisborne committee, is a wellknown farmer on the Gisborne flats, and his deputy, Mr. F. Tolerton, is widely-knpwn in industrial circles. Mr. W. Harnett, nominated to represent the employees on the committee, is a union secretary with considerable experience of industrial conditions, and his deputy, Mr. C. J. Hayden, is employed as a ganger by the Railways Department. The last-named is . the only person nominated by the Minister who has not achieved some public prominence but he has an excellent standing in the Labour movement <n the district.