Military Service.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 12 October 1917, Page 4

Military Service.

The first ballot for members of the Second Division will take place on Monday, October 29, when a selection from Class A will be made. The selected men will not go into camp until three months later.

About 4000 men have been transferred from Class A to other clmßses, leaving some 15,000 in the first class, and these should be sufficient to fill at least two reinforcement drafts.

Owing to the promised furlough for the survivors of the Main New Zealand Expeditionary Force having been cancelled, it is understood that the monthly quota of reinforcements will shortly be still further reduced.

It is stated that the class CI men and th« men whose appeals were adjourned sine die, but are now being called up, will practically be absorbed by January, a few m«n having received extended leave until after the harvest.

Wellington, October 6

As already stated, it is now considered as highly probable that the first ballot among members of tne Second Division of the Expeditionary Force Reserve for the purpose of making up shortages in the reinforcement drafts, will take place on Monday, October 29, the selection being made from those in class A. M- n in this class who wish to avoid tht> ballot may do so by enlisting voluntarily at any time prior to Saturday, October 27. Ttie numbers in the various classes of t- e Second Division as on September 22 have now been officially computed by the Government Statistician (Mr Malcolm Fraser) as follows:Class A. Married men without children, 20,331. Class B.— Married men with one child, 21,907. * Class C.—Married men with two children, 24,82-5.

Class D. Married men with three children, 17,253.

Class E.—Married men with four children, 10,498. Class F.—Married men with five or more children, 11,320. The total number of men in the Second Division is 106,134.

It is considered probable that, with accretions of first Division men through coming of age and the voluntary enlistment of youths of 19, each of thn first three classes will prove sufficient for three ballots.