AIDING SOLDIERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25083, 22 December 1944, Page 6

AIDING SOLDIERS

£5,000,000 IN LOANS TOTAL OF 8393 ASSISTED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Thursday A total of £4,862,729 was advanced to ex-servicemen and women in the form of loans up to the end of November, said the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr Skinner, today. During November alone the amount advanced was £415,076, so that the grand total would now be over £5,000,000. Up to the end of November altogether 598 ex-servicemen and their dependants had been advanced a total of £1,910.557 i order to buy farms, while the total advanced during November was £129,445, Almost 2000 ex-service personnel had been advanced loans for the erection or purchase of houses, the total amount lent for this purpose being £2,128.717. In November alone the sum advanced was £213,003. Business loans numbered 973, the total amount lonfc being £405,604, while the sum advanced j during November was £37,220. During November a further 374 applicants were advanced interest-free loans to buy furniture, the sum involved being £33,977. The total amount lent was £413,947 to 4444 applicants. Loans had also been made for purchases of tools of trade. The total number of applicants to whom loans were advanced to the end of November was BTO3, comprising 7533 men and nine women returned from overseas, 724 men and five women demobilised from home service, 41 merchant seamen and 81 war widows and other dependants of servicemen. TOTAL OF 4427 HOUSED SIMILAR NUMBER WAITING (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Thursday l'p to November 30 a total of 1127 ex-service men and women applicants had been housed with the assistance of the Rehabilitation Department, said the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr Skinner, in a statement-. This total comprises '2129 allocations of State rental houses and flats, 1502 loans for the purchase of houses and 490 loans for the erection of new dwellings. There is about the same number of applications for State houses for ex-servicemen still to be satisfied —actually 4992 as at the end of last month —but with the increased amount of building which it lias been possible to put in hand the position should be eased considerably in the near future. At the end of November there were 3018 houses under construction throughout tho Dominion, and this number was being steadily increased. During last month alone a total of 289 State rental houses and flats were let or re-let. this number including 153 allocations to ex-service-men. Apart from the 4992 applications pending from ex-servicemen, said Mr Skiuner. there were 31.338 applications from civilians unsatisfied at the date of the return. This number was not as fearsome as might seem on first sight, as many thousands ol applicants were at the moment satisfactorily housed, but would naturally prefer a modern State house at the low rental which was asked. ENSURING PEACE FAMOUS ADMIRAL'S VIEWS DISARMAMENT OPPOSED (l'.A.) WELLINGTON, Thursday A civic reception was tendered today to Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes and Lady Keyes. Lord Keyes issued a warning against the adoption of a policy of post-war disarmament. The Englishspeaking nations, he said, must see that another generation of youth was not sacrified. They must stick together to resist aggression and to ensure a lasting peace. Speaking on • behalf of the Government and the War Cabinet, the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, said it was unnecessary to stress what the Navy had meant to New Zealand. But for the Navy it. would have been impossible to hold the country for the last 100 years, and particularly for the last five years. "The Government realises the Navy has made it possible for us to mak our contribution to the war," he said.

FRESH WATER FISH NEW POLICY FOR RESEARCH (0.C.) WELLINGTON, Thursday The inauguration of a new policy for the prosecution of fresh water fish research has been suggested by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society and has been embodied in a report, copies of which are being posted to all societies in N.?w Zealand, so that they may be discussed ar the conference with the Minister of Internal Affairs in Wellington in February. It was the Wellington society which slightly over 15 years ago, on the suggestion of Mr L. O. H. Tripp, contributed £I2OO to create a fellowship at Victoria University College for a student of fresh water research. Faults in the present organisation, states the report; are the dissatisfaction of anglers that they have no voice in the direction of the work, although 10 per cent of their licence fees goes toward it. There has been a detachment of research work from the societies, whose interests are hardly considered. Anglers feel that they should have a voice in the expenditure of the finance they provide. It is considered that the provisions of the Act which constituted the Scientific and Industrial Research Department in 1926 are wide enough to cover acclimatisation as well as other research organisations since formed, and if the combined acclimatisation societies desire to form such an association this could be done. It would eliminate many troubles and point the way to conservation and development of fresh water i fisheries. I