National Military Service Act 1961

Thank you for your form of application as a conscientious objector, and your letter explaining that you were absent from New Zealand at the time of you nineteenth birthday.

Under the National Military Service Act 1961 you should have registered within fourteen days of your return to New Zealand. However, it was not until sixty days after your return that you registered. We now have no option but to class you as a late registrant.

Your application has been forwarded to the Conscientious Objection Committee and notification will be given in due course of the time and place appointed for hearing.

Please find enclosed your certificate of provisional registration as a conscientious objector.

Thank you for your letter of the 6th December thanking me for my application as a conscientious objector.

I note with regret your classifying of me as a late registrant and while I agree under your regulations I must certainly be this, I find the position you have placed me in to be quite unacceptable.

1 must point out, in the strongest terms that at no time, neither when leaving this country nor when returning to it, was 1 advised of your regulation concerning this matter, it was only by a stroke of luck that I found I had to register for national service at all.

I can only infer from this, that you did not wish to advise me of my rights, or lack of them, as a citizen of this country. In view of this, I find that unless you are willing to change your attitude as regards the terms of my application, I may be forced to disregard the whole thing on the grounds that it is taking advantage of the ignorant, and so being, completely unjust.

I trust I will hear from you in the near, future about this matter.

Yours faithfully,

National Military Service Act 1961

I would advise in reply to your letter of 10 December 1971 that the National Military Service Act 1961 is part of the law of New Zealand. This Department does not make the law but is charged with the duty of administrating the Act and its amendments. It would obviously be impracticable to supply everybody with a copy of the Act but publicity is given in the news media and by notices posted in various public places, e.g. Post offices, Railway Stations and Police Stations. If further information is required it may be obtained from any office of the Deaprtment of Labour.

Under the terms of the Act you are deemed to be a late registrant and your application for registration has been [unclear: actioned] accordingly. In due course you will receive notice of the time and place appointed for the hearing of your application by the Conscientious Objection Committee.

In you letter dated the 10th of this month, you seem to have missed the point I was trying to make completely. While I appreciate the fact that you do not make the law, I agree, you are most certainly responsible for its administration, and in this case I think you are failing rather badly.

The fact that publicity is given to this act in various public places e.g. Post Offices, Railway Stations in this country is of little consequence to me if I'm not in this country. Of course if I'm kicky enough to visit one of the above places within fourteen days of my return well there is no problem. The point I am making is that you should advise New Zealand residents returning to this country the implications of the act.

Until you accept this as a necessary requirement, I must again charge you with poor administration of the law and in view of this, formally advise you that I am not prepared to appear before the conscientious objection committee unless it is as a result of a ballot.

Your faithfully.

National Military Service Act 1961

I refer to your letter of 21 January 1972. Your comments on the Department's administration of the National Military Service Act and your statement that you are not prepared to appear before the Conscientious Objection Committee have been noted.

As a late registrant you have a liability under the National Military Service Act 1961 and at a time to be arranged your case will be set down for hearing before the Consientious Objection Committee. If you fail to appear before this Committee enforcement action will then be considered.

This application has been set down for hearing at the Conference Room Labour Department Ground Floor, Hope Gibbons Building Dixon Street Wellington..............on Wednesday......................... the 19th day of April 1972 at 9.15 o'clock in the fore noon.

After due consideration of the National Military Service Act of 1961,I have come to the conclusion that the act it illegal because it deprives the New Zealand citizen of his basic right, which is freedom of choice.

In light of this, I must ask you to remove my name from the Conscientious Objectors register and advise you that I will take no further part in this social injustice.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter at you earliest convenience.

National Military Service Act 1961

I refer to your letter of 3 March 1972. No action will be taken to remove your name from the Register of Conscientious Objectors, as you have already been informed you have a liability under the National Military Service Act 1961.

You are to appear before the Conscientious Objection Committee on 19 April 1972 and if you fail to appear appropriate enforcement action will be taken.