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Kumara Times, Issue 1103, 13 April 1880, Page 4

The disendqwment of the recruiting sergeant—or, in other words, the abolition of the Queen’s shilling—has evidently had a bad influence upon enlistment. No doubt the improved activity of the labour market has also proved deterrent, but be the cause what it may, the supply of recruits at the present time is worse than has been experienced for four or five years past, the falling off having been especially marked since the abolition, on September 6th, of the Queen’s shilling. Ihe number enlisted at Woolwich during the year just expired was only 807. In December last year the recruits of that place numbered 100; this year they have fallen to 52 Under the old regulation, the moment the recruit took the shilling he became amenable to law, and liable to three months’ imprisonment for absconding. Now the ceremony of attestation before a magistrate constitutes the obligation to serve the Queen, and between the enlistment and the house of the “beak” the recruit may change his mind and decamp. Such cases are, we are told, numerous, and recruiting sergeants are oonseouently in despair.