EMPLOYMENT BUREAU.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16032, 25 September 1915, Page 8

EMPLOYMENT BUREAU.

WHAT IS BEING DONE.

STATEMENT BY MINISTER. [BY TELEGRAPH.— SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Friday. The Discharged Soldiers' Information Department, created to minister to the general welfare of the Dominion's sick and wounded soldiers, is quietly carrying out its work. Already the preliminaries have been completed, "and the staff have now commenced the discharge of their duties. "One good indication of the realisation of the times which the Government had in mind when it established the new Department is the willingness of a number of influential institutions and of private employers to co-operate in the work," said the Hon. A. L. Herdman, Minister in charge of the Department, in the course of an interview to-day. "Within a few days of opening the office we had several offers of employment. "Now that the Department has its records as complete as circumstances will allow, the work can go ahead uninterruptedly. The fact that there were over 500 men returned to New Zealand before the Department .commenced work, concerning whom we had not the information desired, hampered the Department a little at the outset, but most of these men have been located, and the Department is in touch with them. Under the Departmental systen each man is now seen before he leaves the steamer on arrival, and particulars of his case are taken.

Asked whether the local bodies and patriotic societies were working in conjunction with the new Department, Mr. Herdman said he had addressed letters to 400 local bodies and 70 patriotio societies, in which he asked that, wherever possible, preference be given to returned soldiers in regard to employment, and that endeavours be made to influence citizens in general with the duty of adopting a similar course. If, in addition to this, the bodies would advise the officer in ciiarge of the Discharged Soldiers' Information Department, Wellington, of particulars of any openings for employment offering m district, very valuable assistance would be rendered.

"As the work develops," proceeds the letter, the question of setting up central and local committees to assist the Department in the duties it is called upon to perform will come up for consideration, and the Government feels assured that the great interest in the welfare of soldiers will be continued. The new Department will get into touch with the returned men and direct them into the channels in which they stand best chance of obtaining employment, alleviate treatment or special training according to eacn mulvidual particular. "The extent to which the Government is at present empowered to render pecuniary assistance has been fixed by Parliament. Military pay is continued up to the time the man is discharged, and after that date pensions on an exceptionally liberal scale are provided for totally or partially disabled men, according to the special circumstances of the case. Outside this State assistance, however, the general public have most generously subscribed large sums of money, and from my short experience of the administration of the Department it is already apparent that there will be many cases which should be brought under the notice of the various patriotic societies with a view to their considering whether assistance can be granted. I*l if organisations," concludes the «te *°? *** assist bv securing emEwl f0 A , retUrne ? soldieM Whenever possible, and by giving the Department M& t adVlCe re^ ia g (1 > app P licarion S for assistance or employment, $ offers of employment, (3) Stance gi'ven whether me^t^tain^ 6 *&*** «3£

DEVOTION TO DUTY.

WAIKATO MOUNTED RIFLES.

j,?" 11 ?™ °L l2 officers and men of the 4th, Wmkato, Mounted Rifles were "mentioned in an order issued by Major F. Chapman on July 14, a copy of which has-been received in Auckland. The text tlSt* * M 'fr":-" Complimentary: The names of the following junior officers, non-commissioned officers, and men have been brought to the notice of the Army Corps commander for having performed various acts of conspicuous ea lantry and valuable services during the period May 6to June 28, 1915. He cordially thanks them for the good work thev have performed, which more than ever testifies to their devotion to duty towards King and country. His only regret is that they cannot all be rewarded — Lieutenant J M Roberts, Lieutenant >. J. Weir (died of wounds), Lieutenant P Logan (died of wounds), 13-154; Sergeant ft" D- Wilson, 13-333 : Sergeant Fairer (killed in action), 13-338: Lance-Corporal Grev Garland, 13-56; Trooper R. Mackereth, 13-334; Trooper 0. F. Farrellv 13-368; Trooper W. H. Johns." *' Lieutenant Roberts is the son of Colonel Roberts, N.Z.C., of Auckland. Lieutenant Logan was a son of Colonel R. Logan, Administrator of Samoa. Lieutenant F J Weir was the only son of Mrs. Weir Lillington Avenue, RemueTa. Lance-Cor-poral Greville Garland is a son of Mr. W 0. Garland, MacMnrrav Road, Remnera He was promoted to full corporal after the action on May 18, and has since been wounded, and is now in hospital in Egypt. Trooper 0. F. Farrelly has since been Killed in action.

BRAVE BOMBING PARTY.

FOUR MEDALS AWARDED.

An officer in a London territorial battalion tells how four men of the battalion who took part in an attack with bombs on a German trench won the Distinguished Conduct medal

"In order to get away from our bombers the Germans had to pass a gap exposed to fire of our old front line, and being faced with death either way they offered a desperate resistance; so much indeed, that our men at one time were on the point of falling back when one of our sibalterns. standing right up on the parapet, urged the men to come on again. He was supported at once by eight of our bombers, but was at that moment shot through the abdomen and died before the bearers could get him in. Four out of the eight bombers were killed, and two wounded, but we took the trench. I shall never forget the two remaining bombers staggering down the trench to our aid post, saying 'We are the bombing party of eight.' They thought then that six were killed but two were brought in by our bearers soon after."

FAMOUS TYROL GUIDE.

I KILLED IN BATTLE. Amongst those killed recently in battle on the Italion front was Sepp Innerkofler, who was well known to thousands of tourists as one of the best guides in the Tyrolean Alps. " Sepp," na he was familiarly known came of a family of Alpine guides, descended from Michael Innerkofler. In his long years of service he never met with an accident and there was no climb too difficult for him to make. When the war with Italy started he enlisted and soon distinguished himself by establishing a telephone on one of the highest peaks near the border, from which he observed the Italian troop movements and telephoned the information to the Austrian commander in the valley below. For this he received a gold medal. In a hot engagement a few weeks ago he received a bullet in the chest from which he died.