A FORWARD MOVE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2195, 26 September 1907, Page 2

A FORWARD MOVE.

LEAVEN OF DEFENCE COUNCIL BEGINS TO WORKr MILITIA TO BE STIRRED UP. Preßs Association. WELLINGTON.. Sept. 25. Tho New Zealand Council of Dofenco has decided that it is imperative to call upon, the militia to take more active part in the defence of tho colony than they have hitherto borne. Tho lists are to be compiled forthwith, instruction to that end having been despatched to each defence district of the colony during tho last few days. There never has been adequate machinery for compiling these lists, and it will be necessary to depend Upon what local facilities there linyy be. Consequently the work of compilation will bo slow. but. it will be persevered in until completion and then tho militia Will bo called upon to perfect themselves in all requisite military duties. The Council of Defence desires not to interfere with commerce or trade in any way, but to train up a defence force that will bo competent to defend the country. Should need arise, tho militia will bo divided into three classes, namely: Class 1, unmarried men between 17 and 30; class 2, married mon between 17 and 30 and unmarried men between 30 and 40: class 3. married men between 30 and 40 and unmarried mon between 40 and 45. The Governor, for tho purposes of the militia, may from time to time by any General Order divide any district constituted under the Defence Act into a regiment, battalion or independent company, corps or other divisions, and my designate such divisions by such name and numbers as he may think fit. The work preparatory to the fixing of boundaries for such districts as those above specified is now going on. and when the work is completed tho districts will bo declared. That will bo a matter of some little time, and anyone who fools anxious at tho prospect may take comfort in the thought that six months must elapse before active training of tho militia can bo entered upon. After that date it will be necessary for any unmarried man below tho ago of 30 who wishes to escape drill duties to take unto himself a wife. Thus he will escape, for naturally it is class 1 of the militia that is called upon to bear the initial brunt of training and service.

The statutory exemptions from training and actual service in the militia are as under: —The Judges of the Supreme Court, the members of the Executive Council, the members of the General Assembly, the officers of the General Assembly, Secretaries and Under-Secretaries of the General Government, the Judges of the Native Land Court, the Public Trustee, resident magistrates, telegraph clerks, postmasters, mail-carriers and ferrymen, all officers, clerks, or other persons acting in the management or collection of Customs revenue, qiersons employed on railways open for traffic, the derm. 7 and ministers of all religious denominations, who shall for the time being be the officiating ministers within tile meaning of the Marriage Act, 1880, the professors in any college or university, all sheriffs and constables, all wardens and keepers and guards of every public prison and lunatic asylum, and the attendants on the sick in every public hospital, teachers of schools actually engaged in teaching, seafaring" men (other than watermen and boatmen) actually engaged in their calling, all volunteers enrolled under any Volunteer Act for the time being in force within the colony, all persons afflicted with lunacy, deafness, blindness, or any other, disease or infirmity that may render them unfit for service, such disease or infirmity being duly certified by a medical man appointed by the Governor and paid by the Government for that purpose, and each such certificate shall state the nature of the disease or infirmity_ under which the claimant is laboring, and distinguish whether it incapacitates him from aotual service and training and exercise, or for actual service only..

An estimate prepared by tho Regietreiv&eneral’s -Department gives the approximate number of men in Now Zealand between the ages of 17 and 30 years as 125,911. It is the unmarried portion of these who will constitute the first class of the militia and be first culled upon to serve. They number 104,371.

CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 25. Lieut.-Colonel Hawkins, officer commanding the Canterbury Volunteer District, when seen by a Press reporter to-day on tho question of the calling out of the first lino of militia for training purposes', said that the projected training practically amounted to a legitimate demand by the State that citizens should recognise their obligations to their country. He surmised that .the training would extend over a period which would ensure a satisfactory degree of efficiency being acquired, and would probably be carried out early in the morning and in the evenings so as not to interfere with tho civilian occupation of those concerned. j