POLITICAL NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1917, Page 6

POLITICAL NOTES.

THE LIQUOR BILL.

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter). Wellington. Sept. 10. The latest "tip" in connection with the Liquor Bill is that the hotels will open at 9 a.m. and close at S p.m. The anti-shouting rule will be maintained. One gathers that Ministers are not in full agreement on the subject and that the Government has considered the possibility of the closing hour Twins amended in the House of Representatives. The choice seems to lie between 7.30 and 8 p.m. FIRST DIVISION DESERTERS. A statement has been in circulation to the effect that the First Division defaulters, that is. the single men drawn in the ballots and not discovered by the Defence authorities, numbered well over 10,000. No official figures bearing upon this point are available, but the Minister for Defence has promised to place a return before Parliament in the near future. The actual number of defaulters is far less than 10,000. It will be found, I think, to be between 3000 and 5000. It should be understood, moreover, that the ballotted men who cannot be found are not necessarily defaulters in fact, though they are included in that class in the absence of some other explanation of their failure to appear. Many of them are out of New Zealand. They left during the interval between the taking of the National Register and the operation of the Military Servico Act; or they may have joined the Forces without their names being removed from the register. This undoubtedly happened in many hundreds of cases owing to men failing to give full information about themselves on their registration forms, or introducing some variation in tileii attestation forms. THE SECOND DIVISION.

When will the various classes of the Second Division bo called up? The. carried men are asking that question all-: over tho country and they are not gettin<T any very exact information in reply. Tho Defence authorities cannot tell in advance what proportion of fit and available men the Division contains Tho proportion of fit men in the eariy rlasses of the Second Division probably is high, since the ranks of the vouflg married men have not been stripped oi fit men by voluntary enlistment to the extent that was observed in the First Division. But the proportion of exemptions may be high. Time alone can show. A well-informed official told your correspondent to-day that a man with one child is not likely to be required to enter camp before April. That means that he will not reach the firing line before November, 1!)1S, at ti'.e earliest.

UNNECESSARY DELAY. The Military Service Bill, which is io/ deal with matters that interest parti- j cularlv the members of the Second Divi- | sion has not yet come before Cabinet. | The Ministers are being blamed for the j delay in letting the married men know what additional provision is to be made by way qf allowances and pensions, and it certainly seems that there has been j unnecessary delay. The fact seems to j be that the Defence authorities have | hoped against hope that it would not be j necessary to take Second -Division men. | The arrangements have been left to the last possible inoment. But there is no doubt at all now that married mei: will j be enlisted. Rumors to the contrary i may be set aside confidently.