MARRIED MEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 November 1941, Page 5

MARRIED MEN

FOR EXPEDITIONARY FORCE ESTIMATE OF NUMBER AVAILABLE. COMPARISON WITH GREAT WAR. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. While official figures arc not available. It would seem that there arcabout 100,000 men of Expeditionary Force age in New Zealand with no more than three children. This compares with 81,245 in the same groups who were available for balloting in the last war. Of the married men now at the country’s disposal, there are probably 30,000 without children. These are the men who may be expected to go to the ballot which the Minister of National Service. Hon. R. Semple, has indicated will probably have to be held toward the end of next January or early in February. When the first of the single men were drawn for overseas service, 14,000 names were balloted. Later, for the following two ballots, 19,000 names were drawn. If similar totals are drawn from the married men without children, it will be seen that at the most they will probably be sufficient for only two ballots. From the last census it can be estimated that the number of married men with one child, who will form the class to be drawn upon next, is probably about 33,000. Here, too, it seems that there is sufficient for about two ballots. Married men with two children will provide a possible 26,000, again enough for about two ballots, while married men with three children number about 13,000. All these totals can only be estimates, and all classes have already contributed varying numbers of volunteers to the forces. The census showed that there were 130,071 married men without children, and 174,884 with from one to 14 dependent children in 1936. However, the great bulk of the resulting aggregate of 304,955 are outside the Expeditionary Force age limits. In the last war the first of the married men were called just under a year after the first single men had been gazetted for service. This time the first overseas ballot was gazetted on December 4 last, so that the time before married men are called will be rather longer. The number of married men without children called in the Great War totalled 14,359. Their first ballot was gazetted on November 6. 1917, when 4627 men were drawn. Two more ballots of much the same size and two very small ones were held before this class was exhausted. First of the married men with one child were gazetted for service slightly over five months later, on April 25, 1918. This class numbered 21,709, and lasted until June 19, 1918, when the first of the married men with two children were called up. In those days drafts were smaller and mobilisation was more frequent than has been the case in the present war, and so far -as single men have been concerned, the ballots over the last year have been at the rate of about one every three months. Thus, if this rate remains the same, and if the married men without children are sufficient for two ballots, the first of the married men with one child would be called six months after the first ballot for married men without children.

FOR EXPEDITIONARY FORCE