HOUSES AND WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24270, 11 May 1942, Page 4

HOUSES AND WORK

RETURNED SOLDIERS • REHABILITATION FINANCE (S.E.) WELLINGTON. Saturday "There will be no hesitation on the part of Parliament in providing the necessary funds for the rehabilitation of men returning from the war." said the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Frasor, when replying to the financial debate in the House to-day. He added that when the present colossal programme of defence works eased off it would be agreed that provision must be made for housing as part of a rehabilitation scheme. The Prime Minister said the project at present in hand was that men now engaged on the defence works programme should later be put to clearing and preparing land, building roads and bridges, and other work necessary for housing in selected localities. At the conclusion of the defence works programme the men engaged on it would not be allowed to go into the ranks of the unemployed, for it would be a great waste of human effort in the middle of a war. Good as the housing scheme had been, the number already built was nothing compared with the number required. If the returned men and their families and others requiring homes were to be properly housed the demand could never be overtaken. If the old standards were adhered to houses had to be produced on a much bigger scale without lowering the standard, and prefabrication methods might be used. BOOKS AND PARCELS PRISONERS OF WAR 6185 MEN IN ENEMY HANDS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Saturday The Prisoners of War Inquiry Office advises next-of-kin that quarterly parcels must be handed in at a post office. They will hot be accepted at inquiry offices. It is against postal regulations. Copies of recent letters, especially from prisoners in Italy, are asked for, with the date they were written,. The office has received advice that up to December last the British Red Cross had despatched 71,000 volumes to camps in Germany, Italy and occupied France and had built up a considerable reserve at Geneva. More than 3000 volumes of plays were also provided, as well as 15,000 packs of cards, 2000 chess sets, 800 sets of draughts and dominoes, 2300 mouth organs, 2000 flutes, 750 ukuleles, 24 sets of bagpipes, 3000 dance scores, and 3500 community song books, besides choral music, opera scores and orchestral arrangements. The total number of prisoners on headquarters records is now:—Army 5900, Air Force 138, Navy 9, merchant seamen and civilians 27, miscellaneous 26, unofficial 36—total 6185. AMBULANCES BUSY ALL RECORDS ECLIPSED All previous daily records of calls answered by the St. John Ambulance service were eclipsed on Saturday, when the ambulances stationed at the Rutland Street headquarters made 64 trips, representing an average of about three an hour. The calls included attendances at 18 accident cases, in which 22 persons were injured. Five of the cases were street accidents involving motor vehicles, a similar number were accidents at residences, and five occurred on sports fields, the remaining three being mishaps at work. E.P.S. CONTROL NEED FOR UNIFORMITY (0.C.) WELLINGTON, Saturday As chairman of the Wellington E.P.S. Central Committee, the Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, has called a meeting of representatives of the districts contiguous to the city to discuss the question of co-ordination and centralisation of all E.P.S. acivities in the metropolitan area. Comment has been made that the holding of separate and distinct rehearsals in the city and in the Hutt Valley had demonstrated the weakness of the whole set-up in the Wellington metropolitan area, and the need for something more effective, so that the Greater Wellington area, like the Greater Auckland area, would have a single head and a uniformity that could be understood by section leaders, wardens and the rank and file. TRAINING YOUTH COMPULSION ADVOCATED (0.C.) CAMBRIDGE, Saturday Asking that the delegate sent to the Dominion conference at Wellington should be instructed to press for the reintroduction of the compulsory training of senior cadets, Mr. Mervyn Wells, at the conference of National Party delegates at Cambridge, contended that the abolition of the compulsory training of cadets and territorials since the last war had bred a spirit of pacifism. Our youth had been allowed to grow up willing to accept a high standard of living, high wages and good working conditions without being made to realise that they must in return give service. It was decided that the Waikato delegate should press for the proposal to be included as part of the National Party's programme. SATURDAY WORK IN MINES (0.C.) HUNTLY, Saturday AH mines in the Hiintly district except Rotowaro were worked to-day following the request by the Mining Controller that miners work alternate Saturdays from May to September. It is understood the cavilling of places at Rotowaro mine, which took place yesterday, resulted in a number of miners not presenting themselves for work this morning. Only a few attended and the mine was not worked. There were a number of absentees at some of the other mines.