LOANS FOR REHABILITATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 137, 12 June 1944, Page 2

LOANS FOR REHABILITATION

OOMETHING is at last to be done to decentralise the rehabilitation of returned soldiers, according to the Minister in Charge, the Hon. C. F. Skinner. His statement describes the new procedure as experimental, but it does give some promise of putting a little speed into the return of servicemen to civilian life. It suggests a break from the system under which every application is referred to Wellington, to go the rounds of Departments while the applicant is" being forced to waste both time and opportunity. The plan, however, is still very vague, and a prompt filling in of the details will be welcome. The powers of the executive body to be set up in Auckland are not defined. There is no mention of autonomous action by the committee, no suggestion that funds will be provided under which it can make definite arrangements for the purchase of farms or businesses, or that it is freed from the trammels of other State Departments, a frequent cause of delay under present conditions. Unless, after the local committee has come to its decisions, it has authority to enforce them, and enforce them promptly, the experiment may fail. The Rehabilitation Department has no Parliamentary grant, and the Minister has said nothing to indicate that the committee will have power to authorise immediate expenditure. Unless and until it has that power there is grave danger that the delays which have exasperated many returned men will continue.