LABOURING WORK NECESSARY

Southland Times, Issue 25669, 11 May 1945, Page 4

LABOURING WORK NECESSARY

SOME EX-SERVICEMEN AFTER WAR (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 10. Members of the New Zealand Vocational Guidance Association were urged by the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr Skinner, in an address at the annual conference today to discourage the idea that no ex-servicemen should do labouring work. Above all, the department had to be practical, he said. Much labouring work would have to be done in New Zealand after the war and a proportion of ex-servicemen would be employed on it. The mere fact that a man had been overseas fox - three ox - foui - years did not debar him from doing such work.

“I have heard a lot of loose talk about the country that we are not going to have our men coming back out of the forces to pick and shovel work,” he said, “but we cannot all be professional men, and there are a lot of roads to be built.- There is a tremendous lot of labouring work to do, and many men are not fit for othex - work. It is a very, very serious tiring to encourage or advise men or women to undertake a job they cannot finish, or to undertake training in a career - they are not suited for. We have to be practical in these things, even if it does hurt a little.”