THE BALLOT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 867, 20 November 1916, Page 8

THE BALLOT.

SECURING THE MEN. AN EXCITING CONCLUSION. A LONG AND ARDUOUS TASK. fSpecial to The Sun.] WELLINGTON, November IS. The ballot among the reservists of the First Division was brought to a close this morning after 90 minutes work. Four districts had incomplete quotas when Hie proceedings were resumed al 0 a.m. and about 100 additional names were required. The districts were Nos. 1 (Hamilton), 10 (Timaru), 11 (Bangiora), and 19 (Gisborne), and of these No. 4 was Ihe first filled. The balloting became very slow, owing to the high proportion of blanks produced by each draw. The number of "live" cards among the 194 raised after the drawing of a marble fell as low as five, and to the assistants, keen to reach the end of their long and tedious task, the proceedings became invested witli some of the interest of a game of chance. LUCKY THIRTEEN. The marble numbered 13 was drawn after the Hamilton district had dropped out, but it proved a lucky one. Fifteen of the thirteenth cards in the 194 boxes were "live" and two more draws completed the Timaru and Rangiora districts. The Gisborne district remained in the ballot alone, and 20 additional recruits were neeeded to complete its quota. The first draw produced only two men, the next eight men, and the third seven men. Then the Mayor of Wellington (Mr J. P. Luke) drew a marble at the request of the Government Statistician, after the barrel had been given an especially vigorous rattle. His marble brought up five live cards. Four more names were required when Mr M. J. Reardon (President of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council) drew the last marble. Eleven cards belonging to the Gisborne district were found among the 194, and the first four were taken, in Ihe order in which the boxes had been arranged in the preliminary ballot for position. That completed the first ballot, which had been in progress since Thursday morning, and some 50 girls sat back in their chairs with sighs of relief. COMPLIMENTARY. A few brief speeches closed the proceedings. The Mayor of Wellington said that on behalf of the citizens of the capital city and of the Dominion generally he wished to express appreciation of the exact and impartial manner in which the ballot had been conducted. He had watched the proceedings closely and he was absolutely satisfied with the way the work had been done. He was sure that every other person who had been present during the ballot felt as he did on that point. The system adopted had not permitted of any errors or unfairness. The Government Statistician and his staff had done their part conscientiously and carefully, and he did not think that the result could cause heartburning in any quarter. Mr Luke added lhat he hoped the girls, who had faced a severe task very pluckily, would not feel any personal responsibility for the selections that had been made. They had simply performed the will of Parliament and the actual choice of recruits had been dictated bv the chances of the ballot.

Mr M. .1. Picardon thanked the Government Statistician (Mr Malcolm Frascr) and the presiding magistrate (Mr S. E. McCarthy) for their consistent courtesy and for their willingness to give all possible information and listen to every inquiry and suggestion. The legislature had decreed that the new method of recruiting was necessary, and he fell that no possible exception could be taken to the manner in which the decision of the legislature had been given effect. He thought that the whole country deplored the necessity for compulsory enlistment. But since the necessity had arisen, it was a matter for congratulation that the Dominion had the services of Mr Malcolm Frascr and his highly efficient staff. The balloting had been done faithfully and well. Mr McCarthy said that his duly had been to see that the ballot was conducted impartially. The work had been done in the right way, and Mr Fraser deserved great praise for the excellence of the arrangements that had been made. Till- STATISTICIAN'S SUMMARY. Mr Fraser returned thanks on behalf of his department. He was very -dad lo have the testimonies lo the absolute fairness of the ballot. In designing the system that had been adopted, he had been compelled to keep Iwo points in view. He had lo be ready lo lake a ballot al any time, ,nd be had to keep the machinery of the register moving, so as to c.orrecl and supplement the roll as additional information reached him. If Die ballot had been the sole end, he might have been able lo devise a system lhat would have worked more rapidly, though no more fairly. He did not say thai no errors would be discovered. The human factor was always liable to produce errors in such a work as the compilation of the register, involving the handling of over 300,000 cards. Hut he could stale confidently that if there were errors, they were "human errors," not lo be attributed to bias of any kind. He bad avoided exercising a judicial function in the compilation of (be register from the cards supplied by the members of the Expeditionary Force' Reserve. If there was doubt about any man's status, then that man went on to the roll. A man who was improperly on the roll could easily get his name removed or transferred by producing the necessary evidence, and it seemed a more serious thing to

I leave a man oIY when lie should, be enrolled, than to enrol a man who should be left off, or who should be 1 in a class other than the one assigned \ him. In conclusion those present sang j'T.od Save the King." FUTURE PROCEDURE. | Explaining the future procedure, Hie Government Statistician infornijed your correspondent thai the j names of the selected recruits had been transcribed from the cards i (hiring the progress of the ballot, land were now being printed in the Government Printing Office. When jthe printed proofs were ready, every manic would be checked in comparison with the original cards by the Magistrate and Mr Eraser himself, in the meantime the Magistrate held carbon copies of the original j transcript ions, and these could be checked against the record of the cards drawn from each box. This record had been kept by another iofficer during the course of the bal[lot. The names finally would be I arranged in alphabetical order, and ithe Magistrate would then certify to jthe list, which would be forwarded I to the Government and published for 'general information in the official | "Gazette." He did not propose to !begin the work of checking the names until Monday, and necessarily the task would occupy some time.