MILITARY SERVICE ACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16300, 5 August 1916, Page 8

MILITARY SERVICE ACT.

NEW RECRUITING AREAS.

BOUNDARIES DEFINED.

PREPARING FOP. COMPULSION.

The Right Hon. W. F. Massey. chairman of the Recruiting Board, yesterday issued a statement regarding the first step? taken in the direction of the enforcement of the Military Service Act. The Military Service Act, says the statement, empowers the Minister for Defence to divide New Zealand into recruit- ' ing districts and it directs the Government statistician, so soon as these districts have been constituted, to prepare district registers of the first and second divisions of the reserve, and to enter on each district register the names of the men of military age belonging to the respective divisions who are resident in that district at the date of its constitution or at any later date at which they become members of the reserve. This is the first stage in making ready for compulsory service.

Pursuant to this authority, the Dominion has now been divided into recruitj ing districts, and the work of preparing i the registers will be at once commenced. I It has been further decided that these I new districts will henceforth be the group i districts for all territorial training and ! Departmental purposes under the Defence ' Act. It is necessary that every man , liable for service should know clearly and i definitely the recruiting district to which I he belongs, and for which he may De 1 balloted. It is also essential to have a ! well-defined boundary to each district to j enable the Government statistician to place i with certainty and exactitude each reservist in the district register. For this reason countv boundaries have been selected as the boundaries of the new group recruiting districts. Each group will include so many counties, and. of course, all boroughs, town and toad dis--1 tricts situate within those counties. The Post and Telegraph Guide shows the county in which each post office in the Dominion is situate, and thus provides every man of military age with easy and ready means of ascertaining the county, , and consequently the recruitring district, in which he resides. Districts and Headquarters. Twenty-one group recruiting districts have been constituted. The Auckland districts are: —

No. 1: Auckland, comprising Eden. Waitemata, Great Barrier. Manukau, and Franklin Counties, with headquarters at Auckland.

No. 2: Hauraki, comprising Coromandel, Thames, Ohinemuri. Piako, and Matamata Counties, with headquarters at Paeroa.

No. 17: Bay of Plenty, comprising Opotiki, Whakatane, Tauranga, Rotorua, and East Taupo Counties, with headquarters at Rotorua. No. 3: North Auckland, comprising Mangonui. Whangaroa. Hokianga, Bay of Islands, Whangarei, Hobson, Otamatea, and Rodney Counties, with headquarters at Whangarei. No. 4: Waikato. comprising Waikato, Raglan, Kawhia. Awakino. Waipa, Waitomo, and West Taupo Counties, with headquarters at Hamilton. The other districts with the respective head quarters are : No. 5: Wellington. Wellington. No. 6: Manawatu, Palmerston North. No. 7: Hawke's Bay, Napier. No. . 18: Wairarapa, Masterton. No. 19 : Poverty Bay, Gisborne. No. 8: Taranaki. Wanganui. No. 9: Christchurch, Christ-church. No. 10: South Canterbury, Timaru. No. 11: North Canterbury, Kaiapoi. No. 21: West Coast, Oreymouth. No. 12: Nelson, Nelson. No. 13: Dunedin, Dunedin. No. 14: Southland. Invercargill. No. 15: Oamam, Oamaru : No. 16 : Clutha, Milton.

The new districts include Bav of Plenty, heretofore attached to No. 2 group, Poverty Bay. The districts for the Cities of Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin have been enlarged to include the adjacent counties, which now in fact form what are commonly regarded as the greater metropolitan areas at these centres. Maps of the Dominion, showing the boundaries of ihe districts', are now being prepared, and will be distributed to each local authority for whose district a roll of men of military age was compiled under the Recruiting Board's scheme. Appeal to Local Bodies. It is hoped, continues the statement, that the existing local body recruiting committees in such of the new districts where no organisation of the kind already exists will take steps to form a strong central executive or, in the case of the larger districts, one or more executives as circumstances may determine, not only for the purpose of controlling recruiting as heretofore, but to assist and advise with respect to matters that may arise from time to time in the administration of the Act. A direct appeal is being made by the Recruiting Board to each local body to take steps in conjunction with its neighbours in each group recruiting district to bring such central executive or executives into existence.

In thus emphasising the need for a continuance of labours which have been arduous and exacting, the board desires to express its grateful appreciation of the valuable assistance that has been so cheerfully given over practically the whole Dominion. It is proposed in the immediate future to proclaim the enrolment of the reserve, and exactly what is meant by that will be fully explained in a further statement before the proclamation i? gazetted.