HOMES FOR WIVES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 213, 8 September 1943, Page 4

HOMES FOR WIVES

HUSBANDS IN FORCES

PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT

In a statement to-day regarding State rented homes for servicemen and the procedure in allocating them under the rehabilitation regulations, Major C. F. Skinner, M.C., Minister of Rehabilitation, stressed the obligation the country owed to the men who were prisoners of war, and the necessity of protecting their interests and those of their families during their absence and while the settlement of other men was being carried out. i

He said that 50 per cent of the houses that became available would be allocated by the local rehabilitation committees. In the past this procedure had not been followed, but in future the local committees would be given the number of houses that were available for servicemen and the responsibility would be with these committees in disposing of the homes. Instructions had been issued that wives of servicemen, wives of exservicemen and wives of prisoners of war would be given the benefit of preference in allocating houses. The Minister outlined the new organisation to deal with rehabilitation. Applications had been called for the position of director of rehabilitation, and as soon as that officer was appointed he would take over the whole of the rehabilitation section of the National Service Department. The section would be staffed by returned men. "No one who is not a returned man should say 'No' to a Digger," said the Minister. The rehabilitation organisation would also be extended to cover the whole of the country, and local committees would be set up where necessary to facilitate the work of rehabilitation. Officers Overseas Rehabilitation officers would also be sent overseas wherever there were New Zealand troops,• and would have positions in base camps as well as on hospital ships. It would be the duty of these officers to advise and instruct the men of the forces on all matters connected with their resettlement in civil life. The Minister stressed the scope of the work of such officers, especially on hospital ships. Vocational guidance would be part of their function. They would stress the possibilities of restoring the maimed and wounded to positions of economic usefulness, and show where limbless men or men with permanent disabilities could be trained and placed in business and industry, and break down the tendency to mental dependency so often found in men who had to face the future under physical disablement.

Major Skinner referred to his tour of the country since his return from active service overseas, hnd stated that since leaving Wellington this week he had addressed large and attentive audiences in Levin and Bulls, which further testified to the gratifying interest the people were taking in the future welfare of servicemen.