COMPULSORY SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16377, 3 November 1916, Page 8

COMPULSORY SERVICE.

TAKING THE BALLOTS.

PROCEDURE GAZETTED.

SUPERVISION BY MAGISTRATE. [BY telegraph.— correspondent.] WELLINGTON. Thursday. The method to be followed in the conduct of ballots for the selection of men to fill up future drafts of reinforcements has now been definitely decided upon, and particulars are gazetted. The method was devised by Ihe Government statistician, Mr. Malcolm Fraser. In the meantime the chief concern is with the first division, consisting chiefiv of single men. Of these there are an proximately 80,000. The roll consists of the personal schedules sent in by reservists themselves, sorted and classified, and arranged in a series of numbered drawers the first division schedules being contained in 233 drawers, numbered consecutively Every drawer contains 600 cards o f whirS 100 are blanks, to allow of the addition of names If a schedule is taken out it ™ replaced by a bank and if a new schedule M put in a blank is taken out. r h ! schedules are arranged in strict alphabet cal order divided into tens in order to facilitate reference. Drawing the Marbles. The ballot will be conducted bv the, Government statistician, and a magistrate to be nominated by the Minister for Defence, and the statistician may have such attendants as may be necessary. Th» attendants will all be women. "The only males engaged in the conduct of the ballot will be the magistrate and the statistician. In taking the ballot there will be two drums of marbles— called the " card drum," will contain 500 marbles, one for every card in a drawer. The other called the "drawer drum," will contain" 233 marbles, one for every drawer. The drawer drum" is used once onlv in every ballot, to determine the order "in which ■ the drawers are placed out on the table \ This order is important, for a reason to 'be explained later. As every marble is ! drawn from the drum the corresponding i drawer is taken from its cabinet and ranged in the row. All the drawers will be set cut in position in open view of the magistrate and the statistician. Then begins the ballot for names. On this occasion there are 500 marbles from which to draw. A Typical Case. Let it be supposed that the first marble drawn is 213. The number is called, an.l the attendants will by a method pre-' scribed, which makes it impossible 'for them to read the names on the schedules, select the 213 th schedule in every drawer, and- reverse it from its horizontal to a vertical position. If No. 213 happens to be a blank in a drawer the procedure is the same. The effect of reversing the position of the cards is to expose one end of them to the view of the supervisorsand on this end is stamped the number of the recruiting district in which the reservist resides. There are 21 recruiting districts in all. Now the magis- ~ trate begins bis work, tie may require men onlv for two or three districts. If a card shows a number for a district the quota of which is already full he simply turns the card down to its place again- < It can never be drawn again in Ibis ballot because its corresponding marble has been taken from the drum. He will take out, replacing by blanks, all those schedules showing the numbers of the die-' tricts for which there are shortages. These removed cards are those of the men on whom the lot has fallen, and the cards are put in a special receptacle, and there classified according to their district man-** bers. When the magistrate has examined *tf all the 233 drawers, a very zimple and rapid process, another marble is drawn from the card drum and the same procedure is repeated. Ensuing Fairness of Ballot. The procedure continues rati! all the v required numbers have been obtained. If, •when only five names are required for, say, No. 7 district, the first or second and third draw exposes eight Noa. 7, the magistrate takes only the first five in the order of the drawers as ranged out. This is why it is necessary to fix the order of the drawers by lot, for if the simple consecutive numbers of the drawers were' the basis of arrangement the lot would be unfair. Men with names commencing A " would run more risk of being chosen than men with names commencing " S." Strict Procedure. The schedules taken out are not returned to their cabinets again. They have been replaced by blanks, on which are noted certain particulars. A very strict procedure is followed with regard to the removal of these cards from their drawers. No card may ha removed without a book entry, and if a card were removed wrongfully iii absence would at once be discovered, and it would also be possible to discover the perswi who had removed it. The chances of any man at the ballot are not altered by his card being put in its wrong place. After the ballot the statistician and the magistrate furnish to the Minister a certi- . fied list of the men on whom the lot has fallen. It will then be the duty of the commandant to call these "»«" tip for service.