SOLDIER REHABILITATION

Evening Star, Issue 24016, 15 October 1941, Page 9

SOLDIER REHABILITATION

SEPARATE MINISTRY ESSENTIAL OPPOSITION LEADER’S SUGGESTION (Special.) WELLINGTON, Oet.M. Approaching tho problem of soldiers’ rehabilitation without consideration ol party politics, Mr Holland. Loader of tho Opposition, to-night made some suggestions for administration completely didoring from tho Bill before >tlio House. The subject, he said, justified the establishment of a separate .Ministry ol Rehabilitation. It was loaded up hist war among six different Ministers. Now it was obvious by the fact that Mr Nash bad taken charge of the Hill that he would ho the Minister of Rehabilitation, though ho was already overworked. Mr Holland road a list of tho portfolios administered by the Minister of Finance, declaring that ho sdw a light burning in his office after midnight, though Mr Nash was there at 9 o’clock in tho morning. Ho was already working 15 to 18 hours a day. but the Minister who undertook this problem should have nothing else to do. and must certainly not bo tied to bis desk. It would never bo a success unless the Minister was able to go round to inspect the fruits of his own work. He could not roly on departmental reports and photographs. but must depend on his own judgment, bis own powers of direction; and they needed preferably an exserviceman to discuss problems with servicemen. Tho success of Mr .Semple as Minister of Works was that ho was always on tho actual job. Rehabilitation should bo removed from the realm of- party polities, and instead of tbo Ministry being attached to an already overworked Minister. the Government should appoint a non-party parliamentary committee to make inquiries into tbo nrohlem and prepare a scheme for soldiers’ rehabilitation. Mon should ho taken from the Government, the Opposition, and tbo other parties in Parliament. Thus they would get results far better than from a ono-narty proposition. The House would recall the success of tbo parliamentary committee representing the Onposition and tbo Government which had toured New Zealand investigating the land erosion problem. It had prepared a lengthy Bill, which, except for one clause, met with the complete approval of Parliament. It would be necessary in connection with soldier settlement to have many local committees, because tbo problems varied in different narts of the country. Discussing land settlement, Mr Holland declared that tho land would have to he made available to the soldier at a price which would make it posiblc for him to produce at a cost at which the English working man could buy his produce. Mr Cullen; Purchase good quality land. Mr Holland suggested that the way out of this problem would not he ■ the temporary expedient of subsidies, for that produced tho vicious spiral of costs.

Mr Poison ; Economic chloroform. Mr Holland ; One thing I cannot understand is why it seems inevitable that tvo should lose millions when we seek to settle soldiers on the land. Mr PickardsWho said so? Mr Holland ; I said so. It does not make sense. We try to establish themunder conditions which give no chance of success. Why not say “ Let’s start off on a sound basis ” —not let the man struggle, till his heart is broken, and then wipe off the debt. We should! reverse the process. Mr Coleman: That’s what we are doing. Mr Holland added that if there were excessive development costs in 'bringing land into production, that excess should bo a charge on the nation. Mr Nash: Js that a subsidy? Mr Holland differed from the Minister, suggesting that such a charge was just as much war cost as expenditure on munitions. - . Commenting on a reply by the Minister of Finance to an interjection suggesting that the returned men would bo able to liuv the land on which they were settled, Mr Holland said ho could hardly believe his ears when the Minister of Finance said that the soldiers would be given the right to acquire the freehold. They had been hammering away at the thing for five years, and did it not show what logical argument would do? A great advance had been made, and thanks were due to the Minister for making that provision, just as thanks were duo to the Opposition for insisting on it for five years, and at last succeeding.