REHABILITATION IN N.Z.

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25249, 30 July 1947, Page 9

REHABILITATION IN N.Z.

PRAISE BY LORD MONTGOMERY

FARMS FOR FORMER SERVICEMEN (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 29. “I have met Field-Marshal Lord Montgomery on several occasions at official functions, and he was amazed at what he had seen,” said the Minister of Rehabilitation (Mr C. F. Skinner), discussing the work of his department at the Dominion conference of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Association to-day. Mr Skinner said Field-Marshal Montgomery had told him that he had seen nothing better in the way of rehabilitation in the course of his travels. “The praise of such a distinguished man gives me a good deal Of satisfaction,’’ Mr Skinner added. Two outstanding problems of rehabilitation were land settlement and housing, the Minister said. The latest figures had not yet been released, but he indicated that 4000 former servicemen had been settled on farms. There was no difficulty in acquiring land, but some years must necessarily elapse before hundreds of thousands of acres of undeveloped land were ready for former servicemen. The difficulty was to produce subdivisions! material, and the situation in regard to fencing-wire, for example, was worse at the moment than at any period during the war. The Government had scoured the World for wire, but was getting only 10 per cent, oi New Zealand’s requirements, and there was no prospect of the situation becoming easier. The Government had spent £50.000,000 on rehabilitation, and the job was only half-way through, he added. One hundred and forty thousand former servicemen and women had been granted assistance.