REHABILITATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25136, 29 January 1943, Page 2

REHABILITATION

THE GOVERNMENT'S PLANS REVIEW OF PROGRESS TO DATE (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 28. A comprehensive statement on the Government’s rehabilitation plans was released this morning by the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr Semple. The Rehabilitation Act passed in 1941, he said, provided the administrative machinery. It also envisaged the handling of the gigantic problem of post-war economic and social reconstruction.

The Government had not set up a special department, Mr Semple said, but had taken the view that the services of all the existing State departments and other organisations that would be of any value should be harnessed under a general plan. The administrative dovetailing of the work of the interested departments and organisations had, however, been provided for. This was achieved by constituting the rehabilitation division of the National Service Department an administrative secretariat directly responsible to the Rehabilitation Board, with the district rehabilitation officers acting as local committee secretaries. By this means any aspect affecting the case of any ex-servicemen would come to the notice of the rehabilitation officer, who would call on the appropriate department or organisation for the assistance needed. Educational Facilities

All the existing technical and correspondence school facilities were available free of charge to ex-servicemen or women, and, in addition, arrangements would shortly be announced in detail about other special facilities, Mr Semple said. Special facilities would provide for—(1) Free places in technical schools and bursaries to selected men for postprimary and university education. (2) Post-graduate scholarships of £250 per annum up to three years.

(3) Men selected for full-time tuition at universities in medicine, dentistry, etc., to be paid sustenance at the same rates as trade trainees, plus the cost of fees, books, etc. (4) Students under clauses (2) and (3) may be required to serve the New Zealand Government for a period of three years. (5) Grants to cover the cost of books for approved courses other than at a university. Furthermore, added the Minister, a considerable sum for bursaries for servicemen, servicemen’s children, books, instruments, fees, and materials was being set aside. The Employment Division

The rehabilitation division, through its local officers, was responsible for finding employment for all ex-service-men or women needing help, Mr Semple continued. To date it had been directly responsible for placing 571 returned men, 1 returned woman, 1361 demobilised men. and 2 demobilised women in employment of various kinds, in addition to employment arranged through the rehabilitation officers.

Men regarded as unemployable were being trained in special occupations at vocational training centres set up and operated by the Disabled Servicemen’s Re-establishment League. More far-reaching plans for the league’s operations were envisaged, and the creation of up-to-date vocational centres was being put in hand. A survey of the absorptive capacity of various local bodies so far as works that needed to be put in hand , were concerned was at present being carried out, Mr Semple said, and a comprehensive plan was in process of formation to ascertain the absorptive capacity of industry from time to time and the opportunities available for men suffering from various disabilities as well as those who were fit but not specially trained. The auxiliary workers’ training scheme was in process of conversion to a rehabilitation trade training scheme. Farm Settlement Plans

The war situation, together with the unpredictability of farming conditions in the immediate post-war period, the Minister added, had necessarily delayed the announcement of farm settlement measures for ex-servicemen. Much research work had, however, been done, and as soon as feasible details of the scheme had been worked out they would be announced. Loans to ex-servicemen by the State Advances Corporation for the purchase of houses, furniture, tools of trade, businesses, and farms, totalled £227,808 for the whole of the Dominion up to the end of December, Mr Semple said. The Dominion total of applications authorised was 641. ■ Apart from loans through the corporation to erect or purchase private dwellings, plans for a vast State housing scheme involving the erection of at least 16,000 houses a year had been formulated, and equally ambitious plans for the manufacture of furniture with which to equip the dwellings erected had been made.