DISABLED SOLDIERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20874, 14 November 1929, Page 13

DISABLED SOLDIERS.

rehabilitation commission. ARTIFICIAL LIMB INDUSTRY. (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, November 13. .Tun. Returned Soldiers’ Rehabilitation Commission continued its sittings to-day. Major D. E. G. Cardale supported the claim that South African veterans should be placed on the same footing as. those of the Great War in regard to pensions. Dr. W. N, Abbott expressed the belief t“*t neurasthenic cases should be dealt with by permitting work at under-rate wages with a Government subsidy for the balMce. A nerve hospital, such as that at tlanrner, should be established in the Auckland province as Hanmer was too far away. Subsidised under-rate work out of doors should be provided for pulmonary tuberculosis cases. In the more severe cases the solution was 100 per cent, pen- *{. on W e , re ®bould be a sanatorium in * -tu*Y? I * a J ter f Ranges run in conjunction with the Auckland Hospital Board. For the aged, debilitated, and those unable to work there should be some sort of institution such as the Epsom Infirmary with ft special subsidy until sufficient cases vere collected for veterans’ homes. Dr W. C. M’Caw suggested that certam classs of cases would be benefited mentally and physically by an alteration of the present method of administering pensions without disorganising to any grftftt extent the systems now jn use. He made suggestions similar to those of Dr Abbott.

Mr. W. E. Cayley-Alexander, deputy P r esid e iit o f the Te Kuiti Returned ooidiers Association, criticising the operations of the Land Revaluation Committee, said the wiping out of a large prottl 1 tte’r liabilities was no actual benefit to the soldier farmers, as thev "3 e * ot thus enabled to purchase seed anu manure. In many cases £SO or £IOO ,lav ° P, ot these men out of their trouble and the Government would have been saved thousands of pounds. No disunchqn was made between triers and non-triers. 1™3 r xrl e .? r f e , Pinn> ,P r . es 'dent of the Auckin w act r Ur f rs -Association, speaking S? , t 0 f ? c , to . r - v generally, said b( 5 detrimental to efficiency if consideration bad to be shown to India id. ml members on account of their pbjsical unfitness or inability to keen pace with their fellow-workers. There bo,vcvcr . positions in most works wheie men could be employed as messengers or at other light work if licensed as under-rate workers. Replying to the chairman fMr ,T. S. Barton S.M.), Mr Finn said that if the work of the commission should: result in a scheme accepted by the Government as sound, and placed in the hands of competent men to administer, he thought he could pledge his association and its members to give continuous arid sympathetic support. In reply to Captain E. H. Sharpe. Mr I'inn said he was in favour of the u’nderrate system, but .he was doubtful of its ultimate success. 1 ;Vi L - representing a firm interested in the provision of appliances for disabled soldiers, and himself one of those men. outlined occupations which could advantageously be made for ftabsorption of disabled and otherwise unnt returned men. The principal ones Pere coat farming and artifi ( .«l limb manufacturing by co-operative as-'oeia-lions. One advantage claimed for this nas greater satisfaction of individual requirements in artificial limbs and appliQ.IICOS, 11 W V! . n ?it" the chairman, Air Nugent, said that it was the practice of the. Government in the majority of cases to msist on a certain type of limb, irrespective of- tha wishes of the man who was to use it. The chairman said the suggestion for -artificial limb manufneturing deserved careful consideration. He questioned the wisdom of the suggestion for the cooperative financing of the seheme. Mr Thomas belwyn Miller pave evif “ffvy regarding his personal experience of different types of artificial limns. Regarding tins as a typical ease, the commission decided to have a demonstration ot the use of limbs at a later period.