SOLDIERS' REPATRIATION

Evening Star, Issue 17543, 24 December 1920, Page 2

SOLDIERS' REPATRIATION

VOCATIONAL COURSE STATISTICS. RECREATION FUNDS. e The Director of Vocational Trainimr informed a reporter in Wellington yesterday that the number of soldier patients on the ftf*™ 8 during November ttos 1,024; the percentage of patients receiving inßtruction at hospitals where the classes were maintained was 85.4 for the !""*}.<£New Zealand. In the Wellington district the percentage was 90.9, in the Otago district 88, in the Canterbury £S%fi B*'9^ 8 *' 9^" ,d * ae Auddand a* tmcwo.B. On an average during the last Si iX dl . man . receiving instruction devoted fifty-five hours to training The solders recreation funds are benefiting very considerably from the profits madeby the sale of articles manufactured in the vocat°A W< K 0p - Daii31 S November the hZh Z" int ° the men's funds. These funds are administered bv patents at each hospital for their own fenß&i, \ Wellington district alone 7 a a ■ i? the recreation funds during the past year, and was disbursed among the patients at Pukeroa and Trentham Money is divided according to the number of horns the patients have devoted to fcrarnmg. Splints and surgical appliances are being sold in increasmgly large numbers by the, Vocational Trahunlr Department. The articles are manufactured in the hospital workshops. The values supplied during the • last four months to soldiers and civilians were:— 2^\t £76 ; September, £125; October, ±.151; November, £195. There is an increasing demand for surgical boots. Both the civilian and the military department recently appointed one surgical bootmaker at Dunedm and two at Auckland, and these men are being kept extremely busy. Military requirements are first met, and afterwards the civilian demand is dealt with.

The department proposes to establish a poultry farm afc the Pukeroa Military Sanatorium for the combined purposes of giving patients "vocational training and supplying the sanatorium with eggs and poultry. It is ejected thtit the farm will he in working order in February, with accommodation for 1,000 birds. A competent instructor is being appointed, and patients will be given intensive courses. On completinor their courses the men will receive certificates of proficiency.