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1913. NEW ZEALAND.

DEFENCE DEPARTMENT: PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO YOUNG MEN IN THE DOMINION BETWEEN THE AGES OF EIGHTEEN AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.

Return to an Order of the House of Representatives dated the 9th July, 1913. Ordered, " That there be laid before this House a return, to apply either to the whole time since the Defence Act was passed in 1909 or for the year ended 30th May last, showing—(l) The number of young men in the Dominion between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five years, inclusive ; (2) the number of these who are enrolled in the Defence Forces ; (3) the number of these who have been rejected as physically unfit or who have been exoused from serving on other grounds; and (4) the number who have been summoned throughout the whole Dominion for breaches of the Defence Act."—(Mr. Laurenson.)

Return. 1. The number of young men in the Dominion between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five inclusive on the 31st May, 1913, was 83,139. 2. The number of these who were enrolled in the Defence Forces since the Defence Act was passed in 1909 up to the 31st May, 1913, is 29,601. (This total does not include the number of youths who registered for service in the Senior Cadets, and have between the date of the initiation of compulsory military training and the 31st May, 1913, been posted to the Senior Cadets and to Defence Rifle Clubs.) 3. The number of these who have been rejected as physically unfit or who have been excused from serving on other grounds since the Defence Act was passed in 1909 up the 31st May, 1913, is 6,050. 4. The number who have been summoned throughout the whole Dominion for breaches of the Defence Act since the Defence Act was passed in 1909 up to the 31st May, 1913, is 4,229. (This includes Senior Cadets.) Note.—Proclamation published under the Act requires all males who on the 31st May, 1913, had attained the age of fourteen and had not attained the age of twenty-three to be registered; consequently the total of 83,139 in paragraph 1 contains young men of twenty-three, twentyfour, and twenty-five years of age not obliged to register and not included in paragraph 2 unless serving voluntarily (a very small proportion). The word " these "in 2 and 3in its relation to lis understood to exclude Senior Cadets. E. S. Heaed, Colonel, Commanding New Zealand Forces. Headquarters, Wellington, 15th August, 1913.

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