HOSPITAL-MADE BASKETS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 63, 14 March 1919, Page 6

HOSPITAL-MADE BASKETS.

• PRIVATE SALES PROHIBITED. ROTORUA SOLDIERS' GRIEVANCE. Basket-making for personal profit, which has been carried on by returned soldiers in hospital at Rotorua and elsewhere for more than three years, is now ' forbidden by the military authorities, j The prohibition has followed on the in- ' troduction of the curative manual train- ' | ing scheme; and is founded, so the authorities state, on a regulation forbidding ' j soldiers to receive payment from any ' ! civilian source. In the past the Defence ! Department heartily approved the mak- | ' ing and selling of baskets by men in hos--1 pital, and even went so far as to allow .the Patriotic Asociation to erect a large I workshop in the groi. -ids of the sanaI torium at Rotorua. This workshop was ' : placed in charge of Miss Edith Fenton, 0.8. E., who had already been teaching basket-making to soldiers for a considerable time, and soon became a centre of I interest to visitors, who eagerly pur- | chased the good cane baskets made by I the men. Now, on the introduction of the new I curative manual training scheme, basket- ! making comes under the direct control of the military authorities, and men who j are selected for that work may be re- | quired to spend up to four hours a day | upon it. Pre fits from the sale of all ; goods made by soldiers under the new system of curative training are to be paid in a " -ecrcation fund" for the i benefit of the men. The soldiers do not mind the com mlsory work, nor do they take much exception to the way in which ] the output is disposed of, though this I matter lias bi en much discussed among I them. Whnl they very much resent, however, is -hnt they are no longer allowed to make baskets in their spar.) time nnd sell them for their personal benefit. During the past three years ; many men have been in the habit of spending a very large part of their time |ut this work, which they found very I welcome in the long winter evenings nnd ;on wet days. Such men hnrl the satis- ' faction of knowing that instead of idling, they were passing their time usefully, and were putting by a little extra money against the day when they should return to civil life. Now they consider that a forgotten regulation has been revived to discourage them from doing something that is in every way beneficial |to them, and at the same time puts the Government to little or no expense, and does no harm to discipline. One feature of the matter is the fact that many of the men are not drawing | military pay, but only a pension at a ! rather lower rate These men were found, after dischnrge, to be in need of hospital ; treatment, and so were re-attested, and put into uniform again. This does not entitle them to military pay, yet they 'are prohibited, equally with the undischarged men, from obtaining money from the sale of goods made in their spare j time. It has seemed to many outsiders I who have talked with the men that what ; was considered right for more than I three years ought not now- to be stopped I lon technical prounds. The men con- ', cerned have suffered more than the gen ] oral body of soldiers; they can never be j soldiers again, and but for their injuries | would now be in civil life. Their injur- j lies will have delayed them in their search . for a civilian job, and as time goes on i j and more men come back their position I i will possibly become less favourable. I Hence their desire to save all they can | for the coming " rainy day." In this j they feel it unjust that an Imperial Army regulation of many years ago i should be applied to a special case which I was never contemplated by its framers, jto whom handiwork as a curative agent was entirely unknown.