MARRIED TERRITORIALS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16200, 25 November 1926, Page 7

MARRIED TERRITORIALS

IS CAMP A HARDSHIP? ‘LIKE IT,’ SUGGESTS MINISTER (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. What seemed an example of hardship and economic waste was the sight of a number of married men in the territorial camp at.Trentham this week. The disturbance of family income by the reduction to military pay of 43 a day has been a matter of comment in Parliament and has been dealt with by the Minister of Defence, Mr. F. J. Rolleston, who declined to make special provision for sueh cases. When the matter was raised by your correspondent, the Minister said: Married territorials must have into camp because they like it. do not compel married men to go into camp; in fact the Defence Department has advised them in many cases to make application for exemption to a magistrate,_ the only authority empowered to grant exemption. Some of these men are on contracts which provide for no deduction in pay while on military service, as for example apprentices, and they get 4s a day military pay. In addition, it is estimated thdt the number of married territorials under the age of 21 docs not exceed 200, or approximately one per cent, of the total strength. If from this is deducted the number under contract of service providing for continuation of civilian pay while in camp, the remainder is so small that it would not justify special provision to reimburse them for lost ‘.wages, especially as exemption is easily obtained where hardship is occasioned.”