N.Z. EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3338, 6 March 1918, Page 7

N.Z. EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.

THE PHYSICAL CONDITION.

Returns wTiich have been published relative to tho physical condition of members of the Expeditionary Fores, who have been called up by ballot, will be of interest to statisticians and scientists. One of these returns affords particulars of the age and height, as revealed by medical classification, of the men summoned under the first seven ballots held in accordance with the provisions of the Military Service Act. As has been observed at Home, where the physical characteristics of the members of tho Australian and New Zealand forces have been contrasted, the Australian soldier has generally been taller and leaner than the New Zealander. In this the influence of climate may be said to be largely apparent. If we accept the men who, having been called up 'in the first seven military ballots, underwent medical examination as fairly representative of the manhood of the dominion, we must take it that the height of the majority of the New Zealand males of military age ranges between sft sin and sft lOin. This would no doubt confirm the general impression on the subject. An analysis of the return shows that 24,229 men, of whose ages and height the particulars are given, are classified as follows in respect of height :

These it will be seen, suggest that there are twice as many tall men of military age in New Zealand as there are short. men, and that the most common height is sft 7in to sft Bin, with a well-marked and gradual scale both of 'ascent to and descent from that figure. Excepting in the cases where men are regarded as not possessing the number of inches to qualify them for military service and the less numerous cases where men are rejected as being too tall, there is, of course, between the height of reservists and their fitness in a military sense. . A return analysing the resnlts of the medical examination of reservists drawn in the ballot up to the 30th June last—a return of more recent date than that with reference to the first seven ballots —shows that 313 reservists out of a total number of 40,773 who were examined were rejected because they were under the required height and that eight were rejected because they were over height. This was a distinctly small proportion- of rejections for these causes, but - the fact that not more than 15.576 out of the total of 40.773 were classed as fit for active service beyond the seas is not one upon which the dominion may be congratulated. The principal causes of the rejection of reservists were valvular and other diseases of the heart, defects of the lower extremities, defective vision, flat feet, hernia, and diseases of the veins. , It is satisfactory to observe that there were only 90 cases in which "alcoholic" diseases led to the rejection of reservists, and the proportion of rejections due to' syphilis (97) and to other venereal diseases (52) was not especially high. An interesting analysis of the voca-. tion of reservists reveals a curious circumstance in the medical classification of farmers, who were as a class called -up more largely than persons of any other occupation. The analysis divides the reservists into five a<re divisions —namely, ages 20-25, 25-30, 30-35, 35-40. and oyer 40. It was only in the case of reservists of an age in excess of 40 years that the number of farmers in the Auckland military district who were classed fit for service abroad was smaller than the number who were placed in classes B, C, and D. In the Wellington military district, on the other hand, it was onlv among the farmers of ages-20 to 25 that the number classed A exceeded the members placed in the other classes, and a similar result is shown in the classification of farmer-reservists in the Otago military district, while there was a heavy preponderance of rejections over acceptances of farmers of all ages in the Canterbury military district. The suggestion which this circumstance would invite, that the farmers in the Auckland military district are physically sounder than the farmers in the southern districts, is clearly untenable. It seems reasonable to attribute the divergence in tho classification to tho existence of different standards of medical examination.

Under 5ft 2in 535 5ft 2in to 5ft 3in 660 5ft 3in to 5ft 4in 1095 5ft 4in to 5ft 5in ... .. 1864 5ft 5in to 5ft 6in 2776 5ft 6in to 5ft 7in .. "... 3302 5ft 7in to 5ft 8in ... .. 3702 5ft 8in to 5ft 9in 3454 5ft 9in to 5ft lOin ... . 2656 5ft lOin to 5ft llin 1982 5ft llin. to 6ft 1112 6ft and over 1131