1586
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 65

25. A District Adjutant of the Volunteer Force holding the rank of Captain will rank as Senior Captain in the district to which he belongs.

26. The District Adjutant shall have access to the muster-rolls and other official documents of all corps in his district, and shall keep a muster-roll of each corps himself.

27. Where practicable the District Adjutant will keep the record of attendance at Government drills; but where he may be unable to attend any Government drills the Officer Commanding at the said Government drills is empowered to sign the record of attendance and certify to its correctness upon honour. The District Adjutant will on each such occasion be furnished with a certified nominal roll of absentees so signed by the aforesaid Commanding Officer, which he will examine and keep for comparison.

28. The District Adjutant will also prepare and furnish, under the direction of his Commanding Officer, all such returns as may from time to time be called for from the Defence Office.

29. The District Adjutant is responsible for the correctness of all returns, financial and otherwise, which pass through his office.

30. The offices, books, and accounts of District Adjutants will be open at all times to the inspection of the officers under whom they may be immediately serving, and of such other officers as may be specially nominated to inspect them.

31. District Adjutants will be held responsible that no arrear is suffered to occur in the work of their offices, and that their books are posted up regularly, so that they may at all times be ready for examination.

32. The District Adjutant will visit corps and practice ranges as often as his Commanding Officer may think expedient.

33. Such Adjutant must, when ordered, perform the duties of Paymaster and Quartermaster.

34. As Acting-Paymaster it will be the District Adjutant’s duty to exercise a special supervision over all claims submitted against the Government, and to see to the settlement of all claims on behalf of corps in his district; and, as Acting-Quartermaster, to watch over the issue and return of all stores, and their proper treatment and preservation.

35. District Adjutants will wear staff uniforms.

36. When a District Adjutant is transferred from one district to another, he will retain in the general service the date of his first appointment to the staff.

37. In the event of a District Adjutant being absent on leave at the date on which returns are due in the Defence Office, they should be signed by the officer who is performing the duties of District Adjutant.

38. The non-commissioned officers of the paid staff attached to the District Adjutant’s district will be specially under his supervision.

OFFICERS.

39. Applications for the appointment of commissioned officers must be forwarded through the Adjutants of the permanent staff or Officers Commanding Districts.

40. The commissioned officers of the Volunteer Force shall be appointed by the Governor. All proposed appointments, promotions, and resignations of commissions of officers must be submitted to the Governor for approval.

41. All appointments, promotions, resignations, and dismissals of commissioned officers shall be inserted in the Gazette, and such resignations and dismissals shall, unless notified to the contrary, be held to mean absolute withdrawal from the Volunteer Force.

42. Every officer must possess a competent knowledge of his duties, and give a proper attendance to the drills of his battalion or corps, and the administrative duties connected therewith; and any officer who does not attend the number of drills prescribed for the enrolled Volunteers to qualify them for capitation must make good the amount of such capitation to the funds of his corps, and will not be allowed to retain his commission, unless it shall be represented by the Officer Commanding the District that there are special reasons for a relaxation of this regulation.

43. Commanding Officers of Corps or Battalions will report, without delay, direct to the Officer Commanding the District, the deaths, and submit for acceptance the voluntary resignations of the officers of their respective corps.

44. When acting appointments are granted in a corps no promotions will be gazetted until the required examinations have been passed by the officer or officers on whom the acting appointments have been conferred.

45. Every officer commanding a company of Volunteers shall, on being promoted and gazetted to the rank of field officer, resign the command of such company.

46. Any officer may, by permission of the Governor, be transferred from one Volunteer corps to another, with the same rank if duly elected by such other corps, without loss of seniority in the Volunteer Force, provided that if such corps be of a different arm of the service he shall have passed the examination prescribed for such arm; but his seniority in such other corps shall be from the date of such transfer only.

47. Any officer may, by permission of the Governor, and after being duly elected, be transferred from his corps to a superior rank in another corps; provided that he shall previous to such election have passed the examination prescribed for such superior rank and such arm of the service.

48. Commissions of elected officers shall be issued in the name of the particular corps to which they belong; but all other officers may be appointed to special corps or battalions, or to the Volunteer list generally, as may appear necessary.

49. On the disbandment of any corps the commissions of all elected officers therein shall lapse.

50. Officers’ commissions shall date from the day of election of such officer by his corps: Provided he shall pass the examination prescribed by law for his rank within the space of three months next after such election, or shall notify to the Officer Commanding the District his readiness to be examined at such examination. In the event of failure at such examination and subsequent re-election, the commission to date from that of such re-election.

51. Acting officers will take rank among themselves according to the dates of their acting commissions.

MEDICAL STAFF.

52. When a battalion has been formed under the provisions of “The Defence Act, 1886,” it will be permitted to have the following medical staff chosen from such of the honorary surgeons of the component corps as may be desirous of being so appointed, preference being given to seniority: One Surgeon-Major or Surgeon, two Surgeons.

53. Honorary Surgeons will intimate to the Defence Office their wish to be posted to the general list of medical officers to the Defence Forces, to which, on such application, they will be appointed in the seniority of their honorary commissions and length of service.

54. Medical officers who have served on actual service with the colonial forces will be entitled to count one year of such service as two in determining their relative seniority with other medical officers, and medical officers who have been posted to the Militia may count such years as they may have served with the Militia when called out for training and exercise, or Armed Constabulary Reserve, in addition to any years they may have served in any Volunteer corps as Honorary Surgeons or Assistant-Surgeons.

55. The general medical list will include all medical officers whether battalion officers or otherwise, and promotion throughout be determined in the first instance by length of service, and afterwards by seniority on the list; provided that after being placed on the list no year shall be counted as effective service towards promotion during which they have not actually taken part in the military parades, reviews, inspections, or camps of any brigade, battalion, or corps.

56. The ranks of officers to be recognized in the Medical Department of the Forces will be as follows: Surgeon-General, Brigade-Surgeon, Surgeon-Major, and Surgeon.

57. If a medical officer shall have served as an Honorary Surgeon for more than five years in a Volunteer company, he will be entitled to be entered on the general list as a Surgeon, and if he has served in any enrolled Militia called out for training and exercise, or with any of the New Zealand Forces, he may add the period of such service towards his promotion; and if on actual service with the Volunteers, Militia, or any of the New Zealand Forces, may count two years for each one of such service.

58. Medical officers who have served as above for more than fifteen years will, on completing such period of service, be entitled to be appointed Surgeon-Major.

59. The Surgeon-General will be appointed by the Government from time to time, and will be responsible that only such medical officers are appointed as are properly-qualified practitioners, and will receive and forward to the Defence Minister all applications or claims for enrolment on the general list; and, if any medical officer has been reported as having rendered himself liable, by misconduct, to be struck off the list of medical officers, he will assist in the investigation of the complaint.

60. Upon intimation of any such offence reaching the Defence Minister, he will order a Board of three medical officers—one of whom shall be the Surgeon-General or Senior Medical Officer on the station—to assemble and inquire into the case and report thereon for the Governor’s information—through the Surgeon-General if he shall not have been a member of the Board.

61. Medical officers of whatever rank are invited to send in their claims for enrolment in the General Medical Service of the Defence Forces, stating full particulars, in order that the list may be correctly prepared at the Defence Office.

62. After the 31st March, 1887, no further change will be made in the relative seniority of any medical officer on the general list, unless the medical officer was absent temporarily from the colony at the time of the publication of these regulations in the Gazette, in which case six months longer may be