Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1870.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 833, 5 October 1870, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1870.

During the late session of the General Assembly a new Militia Bill was passed, and as the subject is one of much interest i*> the general public, we give a brief outline of its provisions. It divides the whole force into two classes only, instead of three as heretofore, and the fact of being married no longer prevents a man between 17 and 40 years from belonging to the first class, which is to be composed of all able bodied men between those ages, who have resided over six months in the Colony. The second class will consist of men between 40 and 45 years of age. The force is to be composed of battalions, and as far as possible after the model of a regular army. The Colony is to be divided into battalion districts ; the officers are to be carefully selected, and their powers better defined than has hitherto been the case; the discipline will be strict, and the provisions of the Mutiny Act are to be stringently enforced. The exemptions, however, are to be somewhat more numerous ihan is now the case. They are as follows : 1. Judges of the Supreme Court. 2. Members of the Executive of the Colony, and of the General Assembly. 3. Superintendents of Provinces. 4. Secretaries and Under-Secretaries of the Colonial Government. 5. Judges of Native Lands Courts, of Compensation Courts, Civil Commissioners, the Chairman of the County Council of Westland, and Resident Magistrates. 6. Clergy and officiating ministers of all denominations. 7. Professors in any College or University. 8. Members of Provincial Councils, or County Council of Wetland, during session. 9. Sheriffs, constables, wardens and other gold-field officers. 10. Duly qualified medical men in practice. 11. Telegraph clerks and postmasters. 12. Keepers, wardens, and guards of jails, lunatic asylums, and hospitals. 13. Mail carriers and ferrymen. 14. Seafaring men (other than boat men and watermen) actually engaged in their calling. 15. Schoolmasters and others actually engaged in teaching. 16. All volunteers already enrolled. 17. All person's laboring under any infirmity. 18. All persons of the aboriginal native race, and all persons holding a miner's right! There is, however, a clause empowering the Governor to suspend the exemption in the two latter cases natives and miners—in any special district. It will be seen that in some respects the Act will bear less hard on several classes of the public than that which is repealed,—the only additional hardship being in the case of young married men, who are placed upon exactly the same footing as single men of the same age as themselves.