EX-SERVICEMEN'S CORNER A TEST OF PATIENCE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 154, 1 July 1944, Page 8

EX-SERVICEMEN'S CORNER A TEST OF PATIENCE

LONG, LONG TRAIL

ROAD TO SETTLEMENT

CENTRALISATION EVIL

The indication given recently by the Minister of Rehabilitation, Major C. F. Skiijner, M.C., that some degree of decentralisation would be introduced in the procedure of rehabilitation, has roused keen interest, and further details are eagerly awaited. The system at present is hopelessly involved by the superabundance of interlocking Departmental interests. It is the confirmed, conviction of aU sectional representatives who are charged at the present time with the operation of the Act, that simplicity of procedure is the keynote of success, and with the present system based on the services of almost every other Department of State, smooth and»rapid settlement of thousands of men into civilian life cannot be hoped for.

While there were aspects connected i with repatriation, as it was called after the last war, that happily have been avoided under the rehabilitation scheme of to-day, in the matter of simplicity and rapidity, the procedure after 1918 was infinitely more successful. Applications for loans for farms or house property were considered and finalised with a minimum of delay to the returned man, and the closer touch with those directly responsible for the decisions made was much more satisfactory to the applicant. All such business was done through district land boards. Applications for loans for farms and for homes were made to the boards who, after close investigation, had the authority to make grants subject to the approval of the Minister. As indicative of the swift and smooth working of the system, a test ease was made of an application for a farhi property near Auckland. From the time the land board gave its decision on the application till the consequent legal and conveyancing was carried through and finalised, a period of 24 hours had elapsed. Some partisans to-day would seize on this precipitate haste as being the cause of some of the unfortunate sequels to land settlement after the last war, but it was not the procedure that contributed to those tragic results. It was the system of land purchase that was directly responsible. This has been countered toy the land sales legislation introduced last year which, despite the objections of interested parties, has been undoubtedly efficacious in preventing soaring prices, which would' again make the returned man the innocent victim of demana outstripping* supply and. of land speculation and exploitation. Local Autonomy Needed

Before the same success and expeditious settlement can be achieved to-day, the local rehabilitation committees, in the main centres will have to be entrusted with the same degree of autonomy as were the land boards under the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act. There were twelve such boards throughout the country. They had the necessary local knowledge of property, land and farming, and met as frequently as was required. Decisions were taken on the spot, and the reference to the Minister for final sanction and record purposes sntailed no de Under the present scheme, the local rnmmittees hsvG authority merely decide eligibility and suitability of any returned man for any project he may desire to undertake, for any position he may wish to take up in the way of trade traVnintr or for any business enterprise. There a're innumerable local committees throughout the country, but there is only one deciding authority in the analysis, and that is, theoretically, the Rehabilitation Board in Wellington. It has a loans committee that has the sav on all applications involving finance. ?t y is understood that the majority of h.s committee are officials of the . st Advances Corporation which is . tne medium of financing rehabilitation since that Department has no Parliamentary vote or other funds. , Applications from returned men have devious ways to follow between the tune they are dealt with by the _local committees and their arrival at Wellington, where the congestion of thousands of recommendations and applications from every part of the country, and the sequential delay in dealing with each, that has been evolved look with feelings of deep misgivings to the days when rehabilitation will be at the flood. They feel that the machinery is seriously clogged, and that the fetish for centralisation, and the dogged determination to keep toalcontrol at all costs in one central authority, topede the process of getting returned -men back into civilian life to an extent that may. have grave consequences.