APPEAL FAILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23997, 21 June 1941, Page 12

APPEAL FAILS

FARMHAND IN BALLOT

THE MONTEITH CASE

FINDING OF THE BOARD (0.C.) HAMILTON, Friday Reserved decision in connection with an application for tho rehearing of an appeal of a reservist, a, farm worker, on the grounds of public interest and undue hardship, has been given by the No. 2 Armed Forces Appeal board in Hamilton. The chairman is Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., and the members Messrs. A. F. Manning and R. Coulter. The judgment was in connection with an appeal made by tho Director of National Service on behalf of A. D. Monteith, farm worker, Otorohanga. It was supported by the reservist and by his brother, F. F. Monteith. His father, Mr. A. L. Monteith, a member of the Arbitration Court, later applied to bo joined as a co-appellant. Public Interest Tho board said that in cases where there were a number of sons, some of whom were eligible for service, it was contrary to public interest that all oi even most of those eligible for set vice should be retained in sheltered occupations. To do so would rouse public resentment and militate against national unity, particularly in the case of wealthy or influential parents, and in those cases in which the sons had been taken into such sheltered occupations since tho outbreak of war. Tho appellant, was engaged in an essential industry, production, when ea|led up. but this was not his usual aud principal occupation. He had been einploved in it for about eight months. He had been previously employed in a Wellington warehouse. Six Sons in Family There were six sons in the family. Two were married, one was under age, and one was serving overseas. One was the appellant, and one reservist had been a glass beveller until December, 1940, when he went to a farm owned by his father. An appeal for his exemption had been lodged. To sav the least of it, the circumstances led the board to view the whole situation with suspicion. In February, 1910, Mr. A. L. Monteith bought an additional farm, and in .June, ]940, tho Emergency Regulations were gazetted. In the same month the reservist was taken from his city employment on to one of the farms. A second son had been called up and had appealed. Mr. Monteith said he was not supporting this appeal, but the board said it found it dillieult to believe he did not know of it. Hardship Question Dealing with the question of undue hardship,' the board held that an appellant was not entitled to invoke as a ground of undue hardship a state of affairs which he had created with the full knowledge that at the time he was liable to be called up. If this were not so any man possessed ol sufficient means could, after ho became liable lor service, purchase a one-man business, or a father could take a son from a nonsheltered occupation and put him in a sheltered occupation. In the present case Mr. A. L. Monteith. at the time he took the reservist from his employment in Wellington and put him on the farm, must have known that lie was or would become liable for service. It followed that any hardship caused by the calling up of the reservist arose from Mr. Monteith's own act. In the board's view no useful purnose could he served by granting a rehearing. The application was dismissed.