MILITIA BILL, No. 2.

Marlborough Press, Volume I, Issue 48, 1 December 1860, Page 4

MILITIA BILL, No. 2.

This bill has been passed—No. 1 having been withdrawn. For the information of

the public, we indicate in few words the main points of alteration. The force is divided into three classes First class service men, unmarried or widowers without children, and between the ages of 16 and 40; second class, married men and widowers with children, between the same ages; third, or reserve class, all between the ages of 40 and 55. Volunteers are first to bo invited; if a sufficient number do not offer then men are to be drawn by ballot in the order of the classes. Substitutes may be produced, the producer remaining exempt from duty for one year, unless all of the class to which he belongs be drawn out for actual service. Sections 11, 12,13, and 14 of the old Act, providing for the formation of the Militia List by Justices of the Peace, are are repealed. Persons liable to serve being now required to give in their names, ages, and places of residence, for tne purpose ot enrolment, under penalty of any sum not exceeding £5. This provision is in our opinion, of a very objectionable nature. Considering how many, especially in the country districts, can scarcely be induced to take the trouble of registering their own votes, it is unlikely that much greater readiness to enlist should be manifested. Indolence, unwillingness, or procrastination, would overbear the fear of the penalty, and we might have half the country in a chronic state of fine and discontent. It cannot be too frequently repeated, that if a really effective colonial force be desired, it can only be kept so by the cheerful co-operation of those who compose it. Every possible cause for irritation should be carefully removed, or, as this for instance, provided against. Under the old Act, the Militia-men are subject to the Articles of War, even when assembled for the purpose of being trained and exercised. Under the Amendment Bill, the Articles of War are in force only during actual service. Offences while on training and exercises are punishable by fine. Volunteers are exempted from serving on juries. The members of any company of Volunteer Firemen, embodied with the approval of the Governor under regulations to be appx-oved of by the Governor for the purpose, arc exempt from serving at all in the Militia. By a clause introduced on the motion of the lion, member for Wanganui, Mr. Fox, no district hereafter to be declared is to exceed 30 miles in its greatest diameter, Consequently, a person residing in the centre of such district cannot be marched more than fifteen miles away. —Southern Cross.