MEN PLACED ON FARMS

Southland Times, Issue 25502, 24 October 1944, Page 4

MEN PLACED ON FARMS

MR SKINNER OUTLINES SCHEME More than £4,000,000 had already been paid out in rehabilitation loans in New Zealand through the Government’s rehabilitation scheme, said the Minister in charge of Rehabilitation, Mr Skinner, in an address at Makarewa North last evening. Mr Skinner was speaking in support of the Labour candidate in the Awarua by-election, Mr Leo S. O’Sullivan. There was a small attendance in a small hall. Mr C. E. Haywood was chairman. Mr Skinner said it was intended to lower the interest rate on rehabilitation loans in the future. He mentioned that several million pounds of the money used ih rehabilitation had some out of the war loans and this would continue. COST OF REHABILITATION “The end of the war is not in sight and rehabilitation is going to cost this country many millions,” said Mr Skinner. “Therefore, there is no chance of taxation being reduced for some time, and the war loans are also very necessary.

“I do not think that the war can possibly finish in less than two years and a-half,” he said. “No matter what happens, I cannot see any prospect of both the Germans and the Japanese being defeated in a shorter time than that. Little progress has so been made in the Pacific, as the places that have already been taken were lightly held. It may be a different-story when the Allies approach the Japanese homeland.” Mr Skinner said that he did not want to appear gloomy in his forecast, but he did not want anyone to think that the war was over, or nearly over. • The fact that rehabilitation covered a wide scope of activities and overlapped into many other fields was emphasized by the Minister. While some returned servicemen wanted their old jobs back, other wanted new jobs and better jobs and it was the department’s task to find them suitable work, to train them for a particular occupation or to set them up on farms or in businesses. Mr Skinner mentioned many of the fields into which rehabilitation came, one of the main activities being housing. Every effort was being made to overcome the housing shortage and many new methods of building were being investigated, he said. Many returned men were also being used to help in overcoming the housing shortage by being trained in the various branches of construction.

Mr Skinner outlined the lands settlement scheme of the Government very fully and said that every effort was being made to avoid the pitfalls encountered by the settlement scheme introduced after the last war.

After the last war, continued the Minister, men without a day’s experience of farming were financed on farms. Hundreds of the men .had to leave their properties, while others had struggled on for up to 20 years with a huge load of debt around their necks. FARM LOAN APPLICATIONS

The Government had been criticized, he said, for taking too much time in getting its settlement scheme into full swing, but he thought that it was much better to take time and be sure than to race ahead and finish up with a tragic fiasco. The Rehabilitation Department investigated every application for a farm loan very carefully, not to find out anything about a man behind his back, but to make sure that if the man was put on a property he would be able to manage it and make an economic success of it. More than 500 returned soldiers had been placed on farms of their own through the Rehabilitation Department, said the Minister. This might not appear a great number when one realized that a total of 53,900 men had been demobilized, but when one knew that no other country in the world was even started with a lands settlement scheme, the effort of the New Zealand department was very creditable. In Southland, 27 men had been helped on to farms, continued Mr Skinner. The total number demobilized in Southland up to date was 2046. More than half of the returned men in Southland who had applied for farm loans had had their applications granted. After the war, when development on a large scale was possible, men would be settled on farms in greater numbers and in shorter time. One quarter of a million acres was at present under development and he hoped that all this land would be taken by servicemen next year.

STANDARD FURNITURE One of the aspects of rehabilitation which the Minister mentioned was the buying of furniture. An interest-free loan of £lOO was available to returned men and the department was seeking to co-operate with the manufacturers in producing standard specification furniture that would give the serviceman value for his money. The specification would not standardize design, but it would enforce a good standard of workmanship.

A vote of hearty thanks to the Minister was proposed by Mr E. M. Legget and, after being seconded by Mr A. Muir, was carried unanimously. Mr Skinner later addressed a meeting in the West Plains hall, where Mr lan Wills was chairman. A hearty vote of thanks was proposed by Mr L. Galt, and carried by acclamation.

The Minister answered several questions at both meetings.