TRAINING THE DISABLED

Evening Star, Issue 25895, 12 September 1946, Page 6

TRAINING THE DISABLED

CENTRES FOR SERVICEMEN AUSTRALIAN DELEGATION VISITING DUNEDIN A convincing test of the success of the trade training facilities that have been provided throughout the Dominion, for returned servicemen on whom have been left permanent physical scars of both the first and second world wars has been given through the arrival in New Zealand this week of a delegation from. Australia to inspect the various training. centres of' the Disabled .Servicemen’s Re-establishment League. There are five members of the delegation, and they are expected in Dunedin either on Saturday or early next week.

The training centre in Dunedin, located in Anzac Avenue, was the second to be set up in the Dominion, and judging from the output of articles that are being manufactured by the disabled men there, it is expected that the delegation will be provided with plenty or information on the success of these schemes to convince the Commonwealth Government that this country possesses a model idea on which to base a policy for the rehabilitation of returned men who are physically handicapped. Incidentally, the arrival of the delegation in Dunedin on Saturday may pe postponed owing to the lack of accommodation brought about by the Rugby football test match on that day, and although the visitors have expressed a desire to see their countrymen in action, it .was thought to-day that they would have to stay the week-end in Oamaru.

The members of the delegation are Dr Minty (principal medical officer of the Australian Department of Labour and National Service), Dr Galbraith (co-ordinator of rehabilitation in. the Ministry of Post-war Reconstruction), Mr. Eltham (director of industrial training, Department of Labour and National Service), Mr Marsh, of the Commonwealth Department of Labour and National Service, and Captain Joyce, of the Australian Army Educational Service. The chairman of the Dunedin branch of the Disabled Servicemen’s Re-establishment League (Mr S. B. Smith) said to-day that the visit to this country of the delegation was the outcome of a visit to Australia earlier in. the year of Mr W. E. Leadley, the general secretary for New Zealand of the league. He had placed before the Australian Ex-servicemen’s League facts proving the. success of the training centres in this country. There were not any similar facilities in Australia for the rehabilitation of disabled men, Mr Smith said, all that was being done there being to provide them with artificial limbs and pensions. The delegation was in this country at the direction of the Commonwealth Prime Minister (Mr Chifley), and if it was decided to set up similar training centres in Australia the scheme would have the full financial backing of the Australian Red Cross, which had been most impressed with what , had been done by the civilian organisations in providing facilities for the training of the physically handicapped returned serviceman in New Zealand.