RECRUITING

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1916, Page 5

RECRUITING

A BOOM. IN CHRISTCHURCH. QUOTA FOR TWELFTHS FILLED. ■ Christchurch,. January C. Christchurch is having quite i> recruiting boom, registering 104 men for three days this week—Monday 37, Tuesday 30, and Wednesday 31. Over 80 presented themselves for medical examination on Tuesday night, and as this city only wanted 27 infantry to complete the quota for the Twelfth Reinforcements, the outlook is promising. Officers state that Canterbury men have been drafted into the. Elevenths to make good the deficiency, and it is hoped locally to fill that quota »nd many more. Last night, at a meeting of the Spreydon Borough Council, The Mayor (Mr. W. H. Windsor) criticised the lack of initiative shown by members of ;Parliment in recruiting work. The Council had been asked to assist in the new recruitng scheme, but Cabinet should have started with members of Parliament. What were they, the paid representatives of the people, doing in the recess now on, Members of local bodies got no payment, and had many duties. Parliamentarians were supposed to be the brainy men of the community, and what were they doing at this stage? i OBLIGATIONS MUST BE KEPT. 30,000 MEN THIS YEAR. Speaking at a gathering of townspeople a* Palmerston North who attended the farewell to Lieut. Jacobs on Thursday night, the ;f rime Minister (tl\p Right Hon. W. F. Massey) sitid Now Zealand had sent thirty-one thousand men to the front, twelve thousand were in tamp, and two thousand were going in. To fulfil our obligation to the Imperial Authorities this year, another thirty thousand, he believed, would be forthcoming. Personally he would like to see them go by the voluntary system. It would not be satisfactory to see some go as volunteers and some as conscripts, but if necessary it might come to that. He believed it would have been a splendid thing if wo originally had gone in for national service. He believed 1 in the principle of national service, and if we could not get the thirty thousand men this year by the existing system we must, to fulfil a solemn undertaking, get them by another method. Civilisation was .trembling in the balance, and wo must place in the scale every ounce of energy, courage and wealth. The Prime Minister's remarks were loudly applauded.