Rehabilitation Cmtte. To Meet Weekly

Northern Advocate, 21 August 1943, Page 6

Rehabilitation Cmtte. To Meet Weekly

A decision to moot weekly insleacl (V monlhly as ai present, was made by the Whangai’ei Rehabilitation Committee last evening. The committee also decided that i'll rehabilitation correspondence be brought before the committee before going to the Stale Advances Corporal ion The matter came forward after a lengthy discussion had taken place on a list of applications lor financial assistance from ex-servicemen submitted by the plate Advances Corporation, several not having previously come before the committee.

Mr. A. L. Flux, of the State Advances Corporation, who was present, by invitation. was asked by the chairman (Mr. G. A. Beihell) it he ihoughi all correspondence should not come before the committee first for consideration before going to tlte corporation. The committee had ben established for over eight months and correspondence was still not corning direct to the committee. Mr. Flux ihoughi the chairman’s suggestion was 1 lie right way to handle tire mat for, provided the time-lag was not too great. Mr. J. A. .S. Mac Kay did not think any lime-lag would be with Hie committee. " The chairman said that recently -several jobs had been done by member's of the committee. The State Advances officers brought cases to the chairman and the committee, and consulted with him frequently. He considered anything addressed to tire Rehabilitation Committee should be dealt with first by the commit tew To Save Time-Lag Mr. Mac Kay thought, correspondence should be dealt with by the person or organisation to whom it was addressed. He had been told by a rehabilitation officer recently in Wellington that in theory all correspondence should go before the commit lec first, but it had not worked out in practice. • Mr. J. W. Parkin thought a lot of the time-lag was caused through the soldiers not knowing who to approach. “If we take the stand ourselves find take action, the Government will either accept what we do or criticise our actions,'' he remarked. Mr. Bethell said it would be an advantage to have a member of the State Advances Corporation present at each meeting. The best results would be achieved through co-operation with the State Advances officers. Mr. Flux saici he and his officers would be delighted to meet with the committee, and do all possible to aid and assist all they could. The chairman expressed his great appreciation for the assistance rendered by Mr. Flux and his officers, which was most helpful in enabling the committee reaching sound decisions. He moved that (lie committee meet weekly and that, all rehabilitation correspondence first come before the committee. This would reduce delay to a minimum in considering soldiers’ applications. The mol ion was carried.