H.—lla

In general the men are responding well to their obligations in the camps, and much useful service has been performed. Payment for this work has been governed by good conduct and industry marks, with a maximum of Is. 3d. per day. Some of the men in these camps are zealous workers, while others are politically opposed to anything in the nature of co-operation with the camp authorities, and, were it not for the vigilance of the camp authorities, these agitators would in many cases have exercised a bad influence on the rest. The religious type predominates, a high proportion being of the younger type of fit single man. Occupational types are well scattered. Seven camps in all have been set up. A detailed analysis of the men in these camps is given in the Appendix. 8. VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE NATIONAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT In the early months of the war, many individuals who for one reason or another were unable to serve with the forces were searching for some means of assisting the war effort. Many thousands of offers of service were received and it soon became apparent that some form of Government organization would be necessary to provide a means of utilizing the services of these large numbers of enthusiastic volunteers. The Department therefore submitted proposals in July, 1940, and after many conferences it was decided on 2nd August, 1940, to establish the Emergency Reserve Corps, consisting of— (a) The Home Guard : (b) The Emergency Precautions Services : (c) The Women's War Service Auxiliary : (d) Such other organizations as might later be included in the Emergency Reserve Corps. Through an amendment to the Emergency Reserve Corps Regulations the Emergency Eire Service was established in February, 1941, as a part of the Corps. The Home Guard.—The Home Guard was established on a voluntary basis under the segis of the local authorities. These authorities wore charged with the responsibility of dividing their districts into localities and establishing Home Guard committees in each locality. Committees so established arranged for (a) the selection of commanders and personnel, (b) administration, (c) co-operation with E.P.S. and similar bodies, and (d) miscellaneous matters. Four districts were established with headquarters at the main centres, and these were subdivided into twenty-eight areas in all. The whole organization was placed under the control of Major-General R. Young, C.8., C.M.G., D.5.0., as Dominion Commander. Personnel was recruited through publicity campaigns with the result that more than one hundred thousand volunteers had joined up by April, 1941. Training was developed along military lines in co-ordination with the Territorial Army. At the outset the main difficulty was a shortage of instructors, this deficiency being gradually met through the training of selected officers and N.C.O.s at Army schools. Full-time paid instructors were later provided. A further major difficulty, which has never been fully met, lay in the provision of a sufficient supply of equipment. Privately-owned -303 rifles were impressed in May, 1941, with the result that some eighteen thousand passed to the Home Guard. Vast improvements in the equipment position have since been made, and uniforms, boots, rifles, machine guns, &c., are now available_ in a much more generous measure, though some improvization and lending of equipment is still necessary. Finance also caused difficulties at first, the cost of establishing units being borne at the outset by local authorities. In March, 1941, the Government accepted responsibility for— (а) District and Area Headquarters administrative expenses; and (б) Capitation grants to individual units, on the basis of 2s. per active member at the end of 1940, plus Is. per quarter per active member. In spite of its difficulties, an extraordinary spirit of enthusiasm may be said to have characterized the Home Guard when taken as a whole, and much useful training was carried out with what equipment was available or could be improvised. The administration of this Service remained with the Department until the latter part of 1941, when, by an amendment to the regulations, the whole organization was taken over by the Army as a uniformed branch of the armed forces. The Emergency Precautions Services. —The origins of these organizations lay in events which had taken place long before the approach of the present war. Following the loss of life, damage to property, and general disruption of business and social services resulting from the Murchison (1929) and Hawke's Bay (1931) earthquakes, the local authorities in most of the cities and principal towns of the Dominion set up organizations of varying degrees of efficiency in preparation for such catastrophes. In 1938, when the international position became unsettled, the Government, on the recommendation of the Organization for National Security, decided to take such action as would secure the development of effective emergency precautions organizations throughout New Zealand, and the responsibility of preparing a general scheme was placed with the Department of Internal Affairs. That Department, after consultation with the principal local authorities, issued in 1939 two handbooks under the title " Emergency Precautions Scheme," one for urban and the other for rural localities. These schemes made provision for the setting-up of sub-committees under a central committee, to handle the following activities, each under the direction of a controller :— Supply Works Transport Fire Medical Accommodation and Evacuation Law and Order Finance Communications Publicity.

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