RECRUITING SHORTAGE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 532, 23 October 1915, Page 10

RECRUITING SHORTAGE.

POSITION IN CANTERBURY. MR ALLEN STILL PERPLEXED. URGENCY OF~ CASE NOT REALISED. [The Sun Special.] ~- WELLINGTON, October 23. The Minister of Defence (Hon. J. Allen) is still puzzled as to the causes of the slump in recruiting in Canterbury, and proposes to come -to Christchurch to discuss the matter with the Citizens' Defence Corps Committee. He says that if he can ascertain the cause of the decline, he will immediately take steps to do all in his power to cope with the situation. , In the course of a statement last night* Mr Allen said that he was aware that there was a falling off in recruiting in the South Island, especially ip Canterbury. The suggestion had been made in Christchurch that local camps should be established in order to stimulate'recruiting. The camps might have this result, but he was not at all sure that the present slackness was due to the lack of such camps. There were no camps in Otago, but the

people there showed a much better spirit than did the people of Canterbury. He was sure that the Canterbury people wished to do their duty as well as the people of any other district, but perhaps the urgency of the case had not come home to them as it had done to others. Soldiers returning from the front, Mr Allen continued, are now to be landed at Port Chalmers, and many of them will be seen in Canterbury. This should help recruiting in the southern districts. It might be possible to bring a transport" to Lyttelton, but under the new system of sending troops away, the department could not afford to lose a single day in the preparation of the ships, which work is done at Port Chalmers. *

Regarding the rate of recruiting in the -various districts, Mr Allen said that he could not say definitely what the position really is until the National Register is completed. Only when he had the facts disclosed in the register could he say how many recruits each district should be called upon to supply. According to the census of 1911, Auckland had the largest number of men between the. ages of 20 and 40 years, and then followed Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago, in that order. The census could not, however, be taken as a definite guide, as he thought that there had been a good deal of shifting Tsy young men during the last few years. As soon as the National Register is completed the department would know where recruiting is slack, and special efforts would "be made in these districts.