This Act may be cited as the Defence Amendment Act, 1931, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Defence Act, 1909 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Every member of the Territorial Force shall, on the first day of June of the year in which he attains the age of thirty-five years, or such less age as may from time to time be prescribed, be drafted in the prescribed manner into the Reserve:

Provided that any officer, warrant officer, or sergeant may, on application in that behalf, be permitted to continue in the Territorial Force beyond the age prescribed for his transfer to the Reserve, but not beyond the age prescribed for the retirement from the Defence Forces of members of the rank for the time being held by him:

Provided also that any member of the Territorial Force who has been classified under section twenty-five of the principal Act as efficient for not less than three successive years may, on the first day of June of any year thereafter, on application in that behalf, be drafted in the prescribed manner into the Reserve, notwithstanding that he has not attained the age prescribed for his transfer to the Reserve.

Training in the Reserve shall continue until the first day of June of the year in which the reservist attains the age of forty years.

Regulations under section four of the principal Act may prescribe the age or respective ages less than thirty-five years at which members of the Territorial Force shall be drafted into the Reserve. Such regulations may prescribe different ages in respect of different ranks.

Section five of the Defence Amendment Act, 1910, and section nine of the Defence Amendment Act, 1915, are hereby repealed.