11

H.—l9.

The following table shows the numbers posted in each district for the year ended 31st May 1920:— J ■>'

6. Prosecutions. During the past twelve months the percentage of convictions to prosecutions was—Territorials, 93-77; Senior Cadets, 9367. These percentages show a marked improvement on those for the preceding year, and the total number of prosecutions shows a decrease of 120 as compared with those for the period from Ist May, 1918, to 31st March, 1919. SECTION V.—MISCELLANEOUS. 1. Mobilization Storus. The war revealed to us the great need for maintaining an adequate supply of war material to ensure the possibility of properly equipping the whole of our trained man-power in case of need. The deficiency of war material in the Dominion in 1914 necessitated our original Expeditionary Force being sent overseas incompletely equipped, while the shortage of military stores in the Dominion during the war has been a serious handicap to the training of both the Territorial Force and the drafts for the Expeditionary Force. The military equipment which was used by the N.Z.E.F. abroad has been handed back to the Imperial authorities, and a supply of new or serviceable equipment has been issued in lieu, and is now being gradually shipped to the Dominion. The need for storage accommodation for this equipment is very great, and although temporary arrangements are being made to store it in wooden hutments at Trentham and Featherston Camps these buildings are not suitable for storage of valuable equipment, nor are they conveniently situated for mobilization. I therefore recommend that district mobilization stores be constructed, in order that this valuable equipment may not deteriorate and that each district may be self-contained. 2. Small-arms Ammunition. Under the existing contract with the Colonial Ammunition Company the expenditure from the Defence vote annually is approximately £100,000. The ammunition supplied by the Colonial Ammunition Company is of good quality, and equal to that manufactured by ordnance factories in England. It is regrettable that this ammunition is not completely manufactured in the Dominion, so that in time of war the country would be independent of overseas supplies of explosives, metals, and other materials required for the manufacture of small-arms ammunition cartridges. The need for this Dominion to be self-contained in regard to the manufacture of ammunition is obvious, and I strongly recommend that steps be taken to ensure this by authorizing a graduated subsidy to be paid for ammunition partly or completely manufactured in this country. 3. Legislation. No defence legislation has been made since the last annual report was furnished, but during the year the following Acts, which are more or less of interest to the Department or to discharged members of the N.Z.E.F., were passed into law : — (a.) The Discharged Soldiers Settlement Amendment Act, 1919. (b.) The Treaties of Peace Act, 1919. (c.) The Police Offences Amendment Act, 1919 (under section 7 of which it is an offence, punishable on summary conviction, for any unauthorized person to wear any military decoration, medal, olasp, badge, riband, Ac.). 4. Military Service Act. The continued enforcement of the punitive provisions of the Military Service Act, and the revision of the Military Defaulters List, have involved much work and a large volume of correspondence. Seventy-eight Courts-martial were held during the year, seventy-one convictions being recorded. The following shows the present position of defaulters and deserters : Defaulters, 2,067; defaulters at present serving sentences, 13; defaulters not yet arrested, 281; deserters at present serving sentence, 20. I strongly urge that all administration in connection with offences under the Military Service Act be carried out by the Department of Justice, which has a staff and machinery necessary, whereas the Defence Department is now required to incur additional expenditure in order to retain a special personnel to carry on activities which in my opinion are the normal functions of the Civil police. 5. Dress. In the interests of economy instructions have been issued to discontinue the wearing of the pre-war pattern of full dress, which was very costly, and is now considered to be quite unnecessary. Officers will in future be required to provide themselves with khaki uniforms only, which, with the addition of the medals, will be the recognized full dress.

1 Mstrict. To .Senior ('adets. I i ! To Territorial Force. i General Training Section. 410 13 I Totals. 4,871 4,074 2,924 5,583 Luckland lanterbury .. )tago Vellington .. 2,789 2,334 1,538 2,953 1,672 1,740 1,386 2,617 Totals 9,614 7,415 423 17,452