IS IT A FAIR SYSTEM?

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1916, Page 5

IS IT A FAIR SYSTEM?

To the Editor. Sir,—ln view of the fact that the results of the recent ballot have been published by the press in New Zealand, I beg to ask, with your kind permission, whether you consider that such a disclosure has been made on a. fair system? Some names have been "starred" and others of those who have honorably enlisted have not, and the reason that has been given is that many failed to send proof of their enlistment to the Statistician before he made their names public. Mow, how were we to know that the authorities were in need of still furtheV advice, when they already were in possession of the data supplied by the enlistment cards and also by the National Register, which must have been consulted to obtain our full names, addresses and occupations? Further, how was it possible to supply such information afresh when the list was public property several hours before we were individually notified? These names, Sir, have been spread abroad throughout the length and breadth of our Dominion, and will naturally come under the notice of those, amongst others, who may have been our associates in earlier life, as well as arresting the attention of many with whom we now have business or social relations. The ''badge" may serve its purpose, in tile town in which we live, but what of the other parts of the country? Why was it necessary to rush such a'slist into print without taking safeguards for the above purpose, especially seeing that the individuals concerned were duly notified privately as to their subsequent course of duty? I hope, that, in defending the honor of the family name of those who have enlisted and of many possessing honorable reasons for their inability to have done so previously, some reasonable method will be adopted for future declarations of the

ballot, or else that these lists -will be withheld until the Medical and Military Service Boards are able to disclose their findings of each case—l am, etc., T. H. BURTON. Hawera, November 28.