NEW ZEALAND’S STRENGTH

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4004, 10 August 1915, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND’S STRENGTH

A NATIONAL STOCKTAKING. FULL REGISTER OF MEN AND M ATE RIA LG. PROP ED LEG IS LA T 1 ON. By '1 olograph --A-pe- in I Correspondent. WELLINGTON, Aug. 9. Jhe Prime Minister has stated in tlio House of Mtaliv; s tiiti pcssion rnat, Indore Parliament dispersed, tlio ipustiM! ci national rtg.stratiou v/oiur) h - Uealt with. 'This promise will- probably be fuddled -oon after the House reassembles. The Purne Minister stated this ovomuig tr.at lii- li;><J given mssiiTn-itons for the preparation of th. ; mxrcssary legislation to be submitted to Pa rimmem providing for the taking of a nalioii.il re;;:-ter ot ail the men in tile country with t'a. object of discovering exactly Vi bat are our j-: -on;’;in men for military service and for industrial smv ice. iho propo:,,, Is wire that every inaa should be liouiicd to give ills name and hi.s age to state whether hr, is married or single or a widower, th<‘ number of persons wholly dependent upon him, the number partially dependent upon him, including particulars about the latfr. A man would also fir- required- to say whether he i;s an employer of labor or an employee, what :.s hi.-, occupation, what is lu.s incom - from all sources, and want the:-: 1 - o:; r--o are. Jfc would </■ n qu;red to :-.,ay v,•aether lu.s health ts good or ot'g'i wi-. - '. and whether or not he is i ree li’osn any pliysiejii infirmity. 'CI-- rcui:;ur. A!:-. A;-y tliought, '•ouid l;v compiled tn a month, and, wb'-n conipilf.r:. jt v.ouid supply the Government wii-i all possibk- mformaGon with n-gard tc t.be men available ioi' t-xie- .Army or for the industries of Ibe country, which might have to be organised if the war continued. Air. Massey did not t-’innk ;t would be a good plan to have the usual fiveyearly census, due next April, taken earlier. Jno census was a very much bigger undertaking, involving more work than the pronc-ad national register.