TRAINING CAMPS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3828, 7 August 1928, Page 3

TRAINING CAMPS.

87 PER CENT AVERAGE ATTENDANCE. The annual training camps for territorials in New Zealand are not ' unpopular institutions, according to statements made by the Minister of Defence (Hon. F. J. Rolleston) in the House of Representatives last week. The Minister mentioned that during the year there were attendances at camps of 96 per cent, in the ease of some companies, the average attendance for the whole of the forces being 87 per cent., which suggested that the camps were not an unpopular feature of the training. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr H. E. Holland) interjected that the youths had to attend. They were prosecuted if they did not. The Minister: If the camps are as irksome as has been suggested, T think the youths would prefer to pay the fine of 10s. The Leader of the Opposition: They arc. heavier than that! Dealing with prosecutions, the Minister stated that for the year ended May 31, 1928, their had been 848 prosecutions of territorials, the total strength of whom was 20,980 —4 per cent. There were 34,464 cadets in the Dominion, and the prosecutions numbered 321 —a little less than 1 per cent. The total prosecutions, 1169 from a combined strength of 55,450, were a shade over 2 per cent. “In the face of those figures,” said the Minister, “it does not seern that there is such a violent protest against the work the men are being called upon to do. I think well enough of the youth of this country to believe that they do not regard something they are asked to do for their country as being irksome or unpleasant. “I believe the young people realise that in return for the privilege of citizenship given them they have obligations to perform. They regard it ns something the country has a right to ask them to give.”