TRAINING CENTRE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21549, 31 October 1944, Page 2

TRAINING CENTRE

DISABLED SOLDIERS RICCARTON STRUCTURE TEACHING USEFUL CRAFTS (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH. Oct. 31. The foundation stone of the disabled servicemen’s training centre in Riccarton road was laid yesterday by the Minister of Rehabilitation, the Hon. C. F. Skinner. The centre, which is being erected by the Disabled Servicemen’s Re-establishment League, will be used to rehabilitate maimed men by teaching them useful crafts such as cabinet-making, woodI liming, upholstery, : leather, work and wicker-work. ' It : will cover. 30,000 square feet, and a cafeteria’, library, recreation room, bowling green and swimming pool. are..among the amenities to be provided. . Mr. Skinner said the builders hoped to have the centre ready for opening' within six months. , The fact that the Disabled Servicemen's re-establishment League undertook the responsibility of ■ rehabilitating all disabled servicemen who returned to New Zealand was mentioned by the president (Mr. J. Murphy), who emphasised that the centre was not going to be a factory but a place where disabled men could learn some useful draft. I He paid a tribute to Mr) Tracy Gough, through whose generosity the league had been able to obtain the site, which comprised about three acres and a half, and to other organisations which had assisted in the project. The Minister said that the work of training disabled men .was the most difficult, job in rehabilitation, the problem being more psychological than practical. He emphasised that it was no use training men to resume civil occupations unless the support of the public was assured. Some men who had been rehabilitated in business were being treated as ordinary business men and were being squeezed ou.t by competition. He urged the business community to realise that rehabilitated men were' not ordinary commercial competitors but returned servicemen who had been put in business with the taxpayers’ money and who were deserving of all the assistance they could be given.