NATIONAL REGISTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 December 1915, Page 2

NATIONAL REGISTER.

SPECIAL RETURN TO BE PREPARED. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, December 12. The Government Statistician has received instructions from the Government to prepare a special return regarding the "single men without dependents" who stated in their war census forms that they were not willing to give service either in a military or iu a civil capacity. lie will ascertain from the registration cards what is the condition of these men with regard to employment, health, and so on. The preparation of this speoial return, or any other special return that may be required, is a comparatively easy matter now that the census forms have been arranged m alphabetical order in the main Register. The information from which the published returns have been drawn is contained in a set of blue cards, which deal particularly with the attitude of the men on the vital question of service ami which forms an effective index to the main (Register. The names of the men who have declined to serve can be separated from the others and then reference tan be made to the original census cards for detailed information. This return, will be in the hands of the Ministers before Cabinet undertakes the consideration of the recruiting question a s a whole. Just what use will be made of it the members of the Government are unable to state at this stage. But there are indications that the single men without dependents who have refused to serve have strengthened materially the hands of the advocates of some form of compulsory service.