SHORT OF QUOTA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20107, 29 November 1939, Page 4

SHORT OF QUOTA

NORTHERN TRIBESMEN MAORI CORPS RECRUITS Though the North Auckland area has provided a total of 505 Maori enrolments for the special Maori Battalion, it seems certain that difficulty will be found in making up the district quota for the corps. Ruling out the volunteers of age groups not at present acceptable, and those whose marital condition disqualifies them for the meantime—the authorities having indicated that married men with more than two children will not be accepted for the present—only 390 of the North Auckland Maoris will be sent before medical boards. The quota lor the area is 359, and judging by the results of one early medical examination the 390 men available will not provide more than about half the number required.

Of the 47 men submitted to examination on that occasion, 17 were passed'as fit, and 11 as temporarily unfit. The general -standard of health and physique among the Maoris of Gisborne and the East Coast is well above that of the North Auckland Maoris, it is suggested by the results of medical examinations conducted to date in connection with the formation of the Maori Battalion. The proportion of men passed as fit, or as temporarily unfit, is much larger than in the case quoted above from the northern district, and the physique and general condition of native recruits compares well with the average of European recruits examined in this area.