NEW DEFENCE BILL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 508, 12 October 1912, Page 5

NEW DEFENCE BILL.

IMPRISONMENT ABOLISHED. MILITARY DETENTION SUBSTITUTED. The Defence Bill, promised by the Minister for Defence, was introduced by Governor's Message in the House of Representatives ou Wednesday night. The new bill provides that a person already a member of the defence forces who has been convicted of any other offence under the Act, may be committed to military custody, instead of to prison, for a term not exceeding 28 days. On the issue of a warrant for military detention any constable may arrest the person against whom it is issued.

The Commandant of the Defence Forces may at any time discharge from military custody any person so detained.

Military detention need not be continuous, and the prisoner may be released from time to time at the discretion of the officer to whose charge he has been committed, provided that the term of such release shall in no case exceed 48 hours in any one time. A person so detained in military custody must be subject to military discipline. Detention is to discharge the accused from all liability to pay any fine or costs imposed.

Fines may be collected by attachment order on the offender's wages, and the attachment order may be made without notice to the offender or his employer; but a duplicate thereof must be served on his employer. Junior cadets and boy scouts are exempted irom the military training scheme.

Failure to register or to render personal service renders the offender liable to the present maximum fine of £s,and also, at the discretion of the magistrate, to deprivation of civil rights. He may not then vote at elections or be appointed to a position in the public service, and he is not thereby excused from service. An employer who seeks to prevent any person in his employ from registering or taking the oath of allegiance renders himself liable to a fine not exceeding £2O. An employer is equally liable for penalising an employee for taking the oath or rendering ruilitary service, whether by reducing his rights or dismissing him from employment. Exemption may be granted from military service on the ground of religious belief at the discretion of the magistrate, but persons so excused are to be liable to such non-military service as may be prescribed by the Governor-in-Council. Failure to perform the non-military service renders exemption void. All property of volunteers is vested in the Crown.