SELECTIONS EXPLAINED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17284, 27 September 1916, Page 7

SELECTIONS EXPLAINED.

STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF DEFENCE.

[Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, September 26. The Hon J. Allen made a statement to a reporter regarding the appomtthe selection, of men to cTnXuto the Military h« said "the Recruiting Board law down for itsSf certain principles. One wTtfaat if possible magistrates.dug d be secured as chairmen. Another wm that all the members selected, whether noagistrartes or not, were to be beyond muitarv aee and were to have no sons SSSihTbe expected to hare justed who had not done so. Theboard auo laid down the principle that the men Sected should be well known m their HiScte and that they should be bi padSet men, an lZ e Ato men who were likely to command tne confidSce of the public in their judgments Adherence to these principles ma de it necessary for the Recruiting Board to pass over certain gentlemen who woukf have been estimable members of the boards, but who did not comply with the conditions lag Id own. "We avoided, as far as possible, the selection of gentlemen public positions to which they had been by vote of the SraSce, members of Parliament or mayors of cities or boroughs. "All the part of the Act that these boards have to deal with .has been placed under the administration ot the Hon A. M. Myers, who has been dealinc with the subject of exemptions while we have been obtaining recruits under the voluntary system. " The magistrates, who will be chairmen of the boards, have been called together, and they will consider some of the more important issues likely to arise in the work they will have to do. Probably one of the most important things they have to consider is the of uniformity in decisions, loe Recruiting Board is very anxious that there shall be no possible reason for complaint that in one district the appeal board made it very difficult for B man to secure exemption, while in another district the board made it cornpa.atively easy. Members of the Recruiting Board realise that if the Act is to be well administered, and if public confidence is to be secured, exemption must be obtained in all parts of New Zealand on somewhat similar grounds. "The magistrates have been selected by the Minister of Justice, and in making the other selections the Recruiting Board has endeavoured to represent, as far as possible, the feeling of the people in the district, by choosing one member resideut in the city or acquainted with city life and the other member resident in the country. No man has been selected because he represents any particular section of the community, and all the names submitted have had due consideration, subject to_the rales 'wo laid down. As it turns out there are two of the members appointed who have been interested specially in labour m-tters. One is Mr D. M'Laren, of Wellington, and the other is Mr Kcllett, secretary of the Carpenters and Joiners' Union, Dunedin. The members of the boards will receive each one guinea per day while they are in session, one pound per day travelling allowance, and actual locomotion expenses."