KEEN INTEREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 217, 12 September 1940, Page 11

KEEN INTEREST.

EMERGENCY SCHEME. WAIKATO ARRANGEMENTS. HAMILTON, Wednesday. A statement that the emergency precautions scheme in the Waikato, praised by the Minister of National Service, the Hon. R. Semple, at a meeting last night, was based on quite different principles from those of the original precautions, was issued to-day by the organisers. The scheme has been adopted by the Hamilton Borough Council and the Waikato, Raglan, Waipa and Matamata County Councils, says the statement. People who have attended the many enthusiastic meetings held throughout the Waikato in recent months have been unanimous in their acceptance of the scheme. It is with the object of enabling civilians who, for various reasons, cannot join the Home Guard or the Women's War Service Auxiliary to assist in the war effort that the Waikato emergency precautions scheme has been designed, continues the statement. Membership of the scheme is voluntary. In it everyone selects the task for which he considers he is beat fitted. Each member also elects his own leader, whom he promises to obey in any time of emergency. In most of the country districts of the Waikato practically 90 per cent of the people have already become associated with the scheme. Inquiries about the scheme, which is arousing keen interest, have come from as far afield as the South Island, and there are indications that it will shortly be adopted by other local bodies. The secretary in Hamilton is Mr. W. L. Ranstead.