COMPULSORY TRAINING.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 39, 1 December 1911, Page 12

COMPULSORY TRAINING.

WHAT ARE "SPECIAL CABSSF ,

The peculiar way in which- the compulsory clauses of the Defence Act are being administered —or not administered—is illustrated by a letter which Mr. "Peter. Thompson has sent to the Prime Minister and also caused to to be published in the "Nelson Evening Mail." The following.is a.copy of the letter:— "Sir Joseph Ward, Bart. —Sir, —On July 22 last at the Nelson Justice Dispensary my boy was fined £1 (the maximum penalty) for failing to register \mder the Defence Act, and w'&e told by the magistrate that unless he registered, penalty would follow penalty, to escape which he had to leave the country. On the 2&tfi of July his bicycle, and all the. money he had saved .was seized iinder a. distress warrant. As his is the only prosecution, that hat taken place in Nelson, and ac your eolleagite, Mr. Millar, stated in Parliament on Oootfoer 6: 'That it vac not the general principle of the> Ooveirnment to prosecute in- the cases of failing to register, and that there may be special eases, , —I ask you to etate precise* ly what, in the opinion constitutes a, 'special cae©/ as w® aws m total ignorance of our !»oy having done or failed to do anything special to merit the very s.pecta! treatment meted out "to him. It will considerably allay public feeling if you can give any satisfactory explanation as to why it h that the law has been laid aside af&er only 12 out of the thousands who fray« failed to register '.within the Lime hare boon pros<*cuted. Aβ ther® jp a very prevalent belief that t%e Constitution of Now Zealand Thermit, even a Prime Minister to interfere with a law n?tcr it. h«« t%© S€atiite Book, it would go a, long way towards restoring 'public confidence were you' to give some information on ibis.r>oint also. I see that it is possible tKa,t .you will attend the coming ■N-elson A:.,and.P. Show, the favour'of a ranjy either before or at,that time Wilt much" obli.go.- -Tour* r«>i*«;tfw:!ly, Peter Thompson.*