§ Brigadier Lowasked the Minister of Labour for what reasons has Ministry appealed against the decision of a Military Hardship Tribunal deferring a student aged 18½ years so that he might, five months later, take his final examinations for the degree of Batchelor of Laws; and whether he will restore the Military Hardship Tribunal's decision in the case forwarded to him, in which the tribunal was following their precedent concerning a student one or two months older who had also been deferred in order to take the higher certificate and against which decision he did not appeal.
§ Mr. IsaacsThe umpire, who is the final authority in deciding applications for postponement under the National Service Acts, has ruled that a student must sit for an examination within nine months of his eighteenth birthday, if he is to be eligible for postponement. This condition was not satisfied in the case in which the hon. and gallant Memebr refers to, and an appeal was therefore made against the hardship committee's decision to grant postponement. The umpire decided that postponement should not be granted, and there is no further action which I can take in the matter.
In the other case the hardship committee granted postponement to sit for the same examination, though the conditions laid down by the umpire were not satisfied. The case was not, however, submitted for appeal within the prescribed period, and a decision by the Umpire could not, therefore, be given. In these circumstances the Committee's decision had to stand.