THE FIRST DIVISION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3087, 18 May 1917, Page 6

THE FIRST DIVISION

NEARLY 40,000 LEFT

SECOND DIVISION IN SIGHT

A return luts been prepared by tho Government Statistician showing the number of names remaining 011 tho roll of tho i'irst Division of the Expeditionary Force Reserve after the completion of tho seventh ballot on May 3. The total is 39,620, as against 48,66-t after the completion of the sixth ballot. Of tho 90U men withdrawn from the division during the intervening period, 8530 were drawn in the ballot anil 514 volunteered for. service. The remaining members of the First Division are distributed among the recruiting districts as follows:— No. of District. Men. A ucklaud *>775 Hauraki 1073 North Auckland 1181 Waikato 1831 Wellington 4194 Manawatu 1689 Haivke's Bay 1702 'I'aranaki . 1857 Christcliurch 2638 South Canterbury 1570 North Canterbury .; 870 Nelson 1229 lJunedin 2691 Southland 2128 North Otago 752 South Otago 65 Olutlia 992 NTairarnpa 1505 Poverty Bay 1122 ' Wanganui 1486 West Coast 1677 Total 39,620 The number of men drawn in the last ballot was 8530, in the proportion of five to one of the recruits actually required lo covcr the shortage in the Thirty-first .Icinforcements. This proportion is not vxpected to prove too high, owing to the decreasing percentage of fit men in the division. It seems, therefore, that the division will be exhausted by another four, or, at most, fivo ballots. There will remain then a large number of First .Division men whose appeals have been JieJd over for various reasons, or who have been classed as temporarily unfit, but the mobilisation of a draft of such men is not practicable, since the cases will have to be dealt with on their merits by tne military service' and medical hoartis, and there will be delay in many instances. It will be necessary to begin drawing upon the Second Division before the last available man of the First Division has entered camp, and some mixed drafts will have to be mobilised. This overlapping appearß to be unavoidable, but the exact procedure to be adopted has not yet been determined. When the drawing of men from the Second .Division has been begun, men who become members of the First Division through attaining the age of twenty years will be medically examined, and, if fit, drafted into camp. No ballot will be necessary in their case, since the number of young men becoming available in any. one month will never be large enough to fill the Reinforcement. It is estimated that between 8000 and ' 9000 men attain the age of twenty years in New Zealand every year, and at least half of them ought to bo fit for service. The regulations require these men to notify the Government Statistician as soon as they reach military age, and at present they are .being added' to the First Division as their papers arrive, and subjected to the chances of the ballot.

The next ballot is expected to take place the week after next. Voluntary recruiting for the Thirty-second Reinforcements will close-at the end of next week, and a ballot will then be taken to cover' whatever shortage there is.