BUSINESS LOANS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 212, 8 September 1941, Page 6

BUSINESS LOANS

•JpHE decision of the Government to assist repatriated men of the three Services with loans for establishing themselves in business will appeal to a large body of men now serving with the forces. For it removes a disability which the city-trained man has hitherto laboured under in the repatriation scheme as compared with his farmer comrade. The outstanding weakness of repatriation after the last war was the absence of a practical form of assistance to men from urban areas whose training, temperament and inclination fitted them for a commercial ©r some other form of town life rather than for rural pursuits. Many hundreds of men on their return to the Dominion after the Great War were persuaded to "go on the land" when they were utterly unqualified for such a life. Farming cannot be learnt in a day, a month, or in a year, as many of those unfortunate soldier settlers discovered, and, great as is the need of the country for agricultural settlement, there is a greater need "to ensure that our returned men shall not again suffer many of the handicaps which repatriation inexperience imposed upon them last time. The proposal to assist men desirous of becoming established in business will obviate what almost amounted to Hobson's choice previously, and will be welcomed by many men who wish to re-enter commercial and professional life on the expiry of their war service. These men in numerous instances voluntarily abandoned remunerative businesses and professional practices when the call came to fight for King and country. They were unable to dispose of their interests profitably, and in a large proportion of instances sacrificed what it had taken years to establish for a fraction of its value. These men will return to civil life to start again from the scratch mark, and the knowledge that the State will be ready to assist them with reasonable loans will restore the confidence and poise of many a man whose outlook would otherwise be something less than cheerful. The inclusion of widows and widowed mothers of deceased servicemen in the scheme, while ethically sound, introduces a different aspect." They will be complete novices to commercial life, and their eagerness to try will be their chief recommendation. The State Advances Corporation will have no simple burden placed upon it in administering the financial end of the scheme, admirable though it is in intent and encouragement to its proposed beneficiaries.