200 RECRUITS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4806, 5 July 1939, Page 5

200 RECRUITS

WAIKATO RESPONSE. INFANTRY AND MOUNTEDS. COUNTRY AREAS MORE KEEN. Nearly 200 young men in the Waikato district have come forward to offer their services for voluntary military training since the appeal by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, for recuits. Enlistments are being made at a fairly steady rate each week.

While the response has generally been fairly good, the best spirit has been evident in the country districts. Of the 200 new recruits only about 37 are from Hamilton. Farmers and farmhands up to the present have been more eager to offer their services than have the young men in the town, but it is expected that large numbers of recruits will be secured in Hamilton when the drive for recruits which is being initiated by the Mayor, Mr. H. D. Caro, opens next week.

Of the new recruits in the Waikato district, 36 have enlisted with the Waikato Mounted Rifles. The enlistments in the various towns are as follows:—

Signallers, Ngaruawahia, 1; machine gunners, Cambridge, 4; Kihikihi, 6; Gordonton-Hamilton, 2; Whatawhata-Waingaro, 8; Te Kauwhata, 1; Pakuranga, 8; Tuhikara-mea-Maungawiri, 7.

Battery and Waikato Regiment

The Second Medium Battery of the New Zealand Artillery, Hamilton, has received 18 recruits since the Prime Minister’s appeal, while 17 Hamilton volunteers have joined the Waikato Regiment. Other infantry enrolments with the Waikato Regiments in other towns in the district are as follows:

Cambridge 4, Otorohanga 10, Pio Pio-Aria 33, Te Awamutu 5, Te Anga 35, Ongarue 3, Taumarunui 8, Te Kuiti 23. In addition to the enrolments in the territorial forces Hamilton has set a high figure compared with most other centres for enrolments in the National Military Reserve, the number up to the beginning of this week being approximately 600.

About 50 men in the Waikato have applied for service in the sixth draft of the Special Reserve. The names of those accepted are expected to be available in the Army Office, Hamilton, shortly. Those chosen for the reserve, which entails a period of five months’ continuous training, will encamp at Narrow Neck on July 13, some of the time being spent in vocational training. On the completion of their training they will supplement the territorials in the coastal and fortress defence forces.