HOSPITALS VISITED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24540, 24 March 1943, Page 4

HOSPITALS VISITED

MINISTER IN EGYPT MARCH PAST AT MAADI (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) CAIRO, March 22 Dust drove through cracks aiul crnn- • nies, heaping on the floors, as tlie Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, passed through the wards of the genera! hospital at Kantara yesterday. The ' visit was inado during a dust storm. He met patients, orderlies, nurses and doctors from many parts of New Zealand and from Western Samoa. British patients were appreciative ol Mr. Jones' interest in the welfare of the troops. This was the second New Zealand hospital visited, lor on Saturday last Mr. Jones visited the general hospital at Hehvan. He was accompanied on these hospital visits by Brigadier McCormick. He thanked the hospital staff for their devotion and sacrifices. A force paraded at the training camp at Maadi to-day for the Minister. To the assembled troops he said: "This is one of the finest sights in a lifetime. We are proud of what you have done and we know well that you will carry out your future combat duty with success." The Minister congratulated the men 011 their appearance and soldierly bearing. Many veterans of Greece, Crete and Libya marched past, nine abreast. It was difficult to realise that this fine military unit was a citizen force. On a visit to a tank school. Mr. Jones rode in a modern, large American tank. He visited the instructional workshops and talked to groups of men in training. During the march past it was interesting to see the famous Kiwi dog, Major, leading the Wellington regiment. LAND SETTLEMENT REHABILITATION POLICY (0.C.) WHANGARET, Tuesday Disappointment that the Government had not paid *more attention to land settlement rehabilitation schemes for ex-servicemen was expressed by speakers at the North Auckland Dairy Conference to-day. After hearing the chairman of the local rehabilitation committee, delegates representing all dairy companies in the area passed a resolution that the Dairy Board be to collaborate with the Returned Services Association and all primary producers' organisations with a view to setting up a combined committee to bring down a policy for a land settlement rehabilitation scheme for submission to the Government. The resolution suggested that the scheme should include the optional right of freehold tenure on a table mortgage at any time after five years, the sinking fund not to exceed 1 per cent; that district committees be set up; that land prices be based on production, and that at no future time should a greater quantity of produce be required to meet the rent, interest and sinking fund charges than at the date of purchase. It was also suggested that in view of the fact that money could be borrowed for the prosecution of the war at 2£ per cent, interest on all loans for the rehabilitation of ex-servicemen should not exceed this rate, and that the first charge on the production of the land, but not exceeding £2OO a year, be for; the living expenses of the occupier. NATIVE'S ORDEAL TWENTY-THREE DAYS ADRIFT (0.C.) NOUMEA, March 19 Twenty-three days adrift in a launch, at the mercy of the sea, and given up lor lost—such is the experience of a Javanese indentured labourer whose name appears as Joesoep on the books of the New Caledonian immigration department. Joesoep is known to the police as an undesirable who but for the war would have been returned to his native Batavia, for it is his habit suddenly to desert an employer for whom he has contracted to work. This the authorities will not allow. Noumea, warned of his disappear- , ance and that of his master's launch, had long given him up for lost, but all the time wind and wave were pushing him north-westward along the whole 250 miles of the New Caledonian coastline, in the deep waters outside the barrier reef. The petrol supply was exhausted after a few hours, On the twenty-third day—and from first to last, save for an occasional seabird. an occasion shark or jumping fish, Joesoep had seen no sign of life—the launch rounded the north-east tip of New Caledonia and grounded on the white sands of uninhabited Pam Islet, where he was later found lying, almost unconscious, by some local fishermen. The Javanese had been without food and water for many days. He was lucky. Had he missed the northern tip of New Caledonia be would have drifted right across the Coral Sea to the Queensland coast between Gladstone and Cape York. But, long before he arrived there Joesoep would have! been dead. As it is. the native is now in the not! unkindly hands of the gendarme at! Ouhatche He can eat his fill without j fear of his life, but with the following: prospect before him: When he has sufli-; cient.lv recovered from his ordeal he i will be led on foot by relays of native police boys from gendarmerie to gen-1 darmerie down the east coast, then | across the Chaine Centrale to the west i coast and so to Noumea.