GOVERNMENT MONEY FOR LEAGUE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14252, 28 December 1946, Page 4

GOVERNMENT MONEY FOR LEAGUE

PROBLEM OF DISABLED

SERVICEMEN

FINANCE MINISTER’S assurance

‘‘There is nothing that the Government can do that it wall not do to assist the Disabled Servicemen’s Reestablishment League in its work. There is nothing we have got to do with more vim and certainty than to make these men feel that they belong, to the community at large, and that they are still as good as any other men,” f said the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, when performing the official opening ceremony of the Disabled Servicemen’s Vocational Guidance .Centre in Invercargill recently. Mr Nash paid a tribute to the men who had suffered war disabilities. He had met many hospital ships on their return to the Dominion, and had been greatly impressed with the splendid courage of the men, he said. “I shall never forget one, man who had lost his sight and his hands,” Mr Nash said. “No matter what it cost we will find him hands to make him feel he is useful, and that he is wanted. His pension is big, but if we can make him feel he is useful, and that he is wanted, that is more important than anything else.”

Mr Nash said that the vocational training centres would save the country money in the long run, but actually the question of money did not come into it at all. The league could have any money it wanted, the only stipulation being that it should *be spent wisely. The work could be carried further by extending it to disabled civilians.. He felt that ii would he good economy on the part of the Government to do this when they had learned all that the league had to teach them. Many people had been disabled in motor accidents and it would be wise to help them to reestablish themselves. “In the care and re-establishment of our handicapped fighting men, New Zealand stands in the vanguard of the nations,” said Mr S. Anderson, chairman of the Invercargill branch of the league. “What New Zealand is doing for her disabled men is creating a fine impression in other countries. Members of a delegation from Australia stated after completing a tour of New Zealand that they could well understand the pride the league took in its work.” * Mr Anderson added that there were training centres in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Napier, where men w r ere being taught handicrafts to suit their particular disabilities, and there was also a model farm at Palmerston North, where they were taught poultry, bee and fruit farming and market gardening. Those who were declared capable at the end of the course would bo placed on small farms up to 20 acres. Men had gone • out from the centres with confidence to take their place in industry, after having at cue time given up all hope of ever “getting back.”