A.—2

32

Enclosure. Order of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. (Dated 14th October, 1929.) The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, by virtue and in exercise of the powers vested in him under the Diseases of Animals Acts, 1894 to 1927, and of every other power enabling him in this behalf, hereby orders as follows : — 1. Notwithstanding anything contained in Chapter 6 (Protection of Animals) of the Foreign Animals Order of 1910, and in Part VII (Protection of Animals) of the Importation of Canadian Cattle Order of 1923, animals shall not be carried between each first day of November and the next following thirty-first day of March (both days inclusive) on a weather deck of any vessel of the flush or spar deck type unless such deck is completely covered in to the satisfaction of the Minister. 2. This Order shall be read with the Orders mentioned in Article 1 hereof. In witness whereof the Official Seal of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries is hereunto affixed this fourteenth day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty-nine. [l.s.] P- J. L. Kelland, Authorized by the Minister.

No. 45. New Zealand, No. 325. Sir, — • Downing Street, 22nd October, 1929. I have the honour to state that I am informed by the Air Council that applications for entry into the Reserve of Air Force Officers are frequently received from university undergraduates, particularly Rhodes Scholars, who have come from the Dominions for the purpose of attending the universities, and intend, generally speaking, to return oversea immediately their studies are completed. At present permission to enter the Reserve has in these cases to be refused, since there is at the outset no prospect that the candidates can carry through the minimum term of five years' service required from officers of the Reserve. The Council are favourably disposed to any arrangement that would enable the services of such eminently suitable candidates to be utilized in the interests of Empire defence, but they are obviously precluded on financial grounds from adopting the only existing method of meeting the difficulty — namely, by shortening the period of engagement, and, moreover, the supply of candidates able to comply with the five years' obligation is more than equal to the demand. The Council, however, consider that it would be quite feasible to institute a joint scheme with liis Majesty's Governments in the Dominions possessing Air Forces, under which service could be undertaken partly in the Reserve in this country and partly in the corresponding air organization in the Dominion, and the Council have submitted the following proposals for the consideration of His Majesty's Government in New Zealand. 2. Officers for flying duties in the Reserve are recruited principally from two sources ; either from officers of the regular service on short service commissions who pass to the reserve on completing their term on the Active List (Class A) ; or from suitable entrants with no previous flying qualifications (Class A.A.). The university candidates now in question would enter under the second category. Officers appointed to Class A.A. are required in their first six months to undergo a course of ab initio flying training at a civil flying-school, and thereafter, if they pass the necessary tests, have to complete six hours' further training before the end of their first year, and a minimum of twelve hours' solo flying in each subsequent year. Fuller information on these and other points will be found in Air Ministry Pamphlet 14 (Notes for the information of candidates for commissions in the Reserve of Air Force Officers) a copy of which is enclosed. 3. The joint scheme which the Council have in mind would broadly take the following lines : — (1) Dominion applicants would be selected in this country and their entry finally approved by the Air Ministry, but they would be required to produce a nomination from the Dominion authorities, and in the case of Rhodes Scholars a statement also that the Rhodes Trustees have no objection to their entry into the Reserve.