BIGGEST YET

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9648, 1 May 1917, Page 5

BIGGEST YET

THE SEVENTH BALLOT 8530 MEN TO BiE DRAWN TO-DAY. Voluntary recruiting for the 31st Reinforcements closed on Saturday last. Tho total number of recruits offering was 617, leaving a shortage throughout the Dominion of 1706. For tho sixth time the Bay of Plenty district raised its full quota under the voluntary system j but the Clutha and the North Otago districts failed to raise a recruit between them, and tho West Coast districts secured only one each. The following table shows the number of recruits raised in, and the shortage for, each recruiting district :

A PROPORTION OF FIVE TO ONE. The ballot to complete the drafts from tha members of tho First Division of tho Expeditionary Force Reserve is to bo commenced at 9 o’clock this morning by Mr Malcolm Fraser, the Government Statistician. The- ballot will bo the biggest yet drawn under the Military Service Act, no fewer than 8530 names being required. The reasons for this are, (1) that the number of vacancies to be filled in the 31st Reinforcements is greater than in the case -of any previous monthly quota, and (2) that, because of the increased stringency of the medical examinations a greater percentage of the recruits are rejected, and it has been decided, therefore, to draw in the proportion of 5 to I, instead of 4 to 1, as for the sixth ballot, and 3 to 1 for previous ballots.

The number of First Division men remaining after the drawing of the sixth ballot was 48,664.

Xo, Recruiting . District. Voluntary ShortItecruits. aze. i Auckland City 164 2 (JO 2 Hnuraki 21 36 3 North Auckland ... 16 53 4 Waikato 25 78 5 Wellington City .. 190 (> Hxwko’s Bay 47 7 JVInnawatu ....... 15 93 8 Taranaki 23 89 9 Christchurch 23 150 10 South Canterbury 6 101 n North Canterbury 1 60 12 Nelson 73 13 Dunedin 88 u Southland 113 15 North. Otago 50 IB Cluthn 47 17 Buy of Plenty 51 — 18 Wairarapa 21 69 19 Poverty Bay 22 50 20 Wanganui 61 21 West- Coast 1 58 Totals 1706