TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays FRIDAY, 24th JULY, 1942 MAKING A NEW ORDER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 65, Issue 5502, 24 July 1942, Page 2

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays FRIDAY, 24th JULY, 1942 MAKING A NEW ORDER

AN obvious omission in the re-con-structed War Administration in New Zealand is the failure to recognise post-war rehabilittation, and neglect to delegate powers of reconstruction to a constructive Ministerial executive is a serious shortcoming. Already some misgiving has arisen that the end of this war will find the country as disastrously unprepared to deal with the social and economic problems of rehabilitation as it was at the end of the last war, and these feelings are not set at rest by the neglect to appoint a Minister of Rehabilitation in the re-constructed War Administration. So far, the Government has not done over-much. It has enacted the Occupational Reinstatement Regulations, which are at best designed to shift responsibility from the Government to the employers; but this is a poor substitute for any necessary constructive planning, and it becomes increasingly evident that many factors will arise to defeat the purpose which these regulations intendThen, in the Rehabilitation Act of 1941, some machinery was contemplated, and a Rehabilitation Council of twenty members was appointed. Then, also, there has been created a Rehabilitation Board of six members; but all of this organisation is given narrow scope of action, since the Ac + prescribes a statutory condition that the Board “ shall be subject in all things to the control of the Minister.” Under such a condition, now so general in its application to expert councils appointed to aid in public projects, there is little opportunity to expand either policy or plans, and a further defect is that the reference in the Act to the Minister must necessarily concern a member of the domestic Cabinet and not the War Administration. Apart, however, from these defects of administration machinery, many people believe that the Government’s whole approach to rehabilitation is too narrow. It becomes increasingly evident that the war is producing profound changes in the whole structure of New Zealand’s economic life; and the problem of readjusting industry to the needs of peace and re-absorbing men into industry'will not be solved unless it is regarded as a problem of large-scale economic planning. Many new avenues will have to be explored in their ) elationship not only to economic changes here, but to the altered conditions which are surely coming to pass in the whole world- It may well be that instead of exporting the crudes, or raw materials, New Zealand can open many new manufacturing enterprises. In a dairying district like this, for example, in place of a whole enterprise based upon exportable produce, future development might well be given over to the commodities manufactured from casein. In could happen, too, by research at the source of production and by inquiry into markets and economic aspects, that very much more could be done for diversified farming. If we learned anything from the experience of the last war we must have realised the dangers and the damage that result from leaving entirely until the days of peace an approach to the problems of repatriation. In any case, that lesson has been learned in Great Britain, where forces are now hard at work in preparation. We in this country will err sadly if nothing more is done than has so far been indicated. Land settlement based upon land utilisation, with the development of attendant enterprises, will have to be contemplated. A considerably increased population is another reasonable anticipation within a country so rich in natural resources as this. But the leadership must come from the Government—not from the domestic Cabinet, but from the War Administration; and the absence of a Minister of Rehabilitation is an omission that should be put right at once, because it is essentially a task for the War Administration to undertake- After-'

war reconstruction is as much its responsibility as is ’the winning of the war, because we will not win the war if we lose the peace—and lose the peace we will if we fail in the great social and economic tasks of reconstruction that come with it- In its every aspect reconstruction is a policy for all forces within a Government as represented by the War Administration; it is certainly not a politically inspired undertaking for any one particular administrative agency- It calls right into the open many fundamental economic and social issues which are play-things of political factions; rehabilitation, involving as it does a serious wrestling with vital policies is the task and the welfare of the nation; and that is the task that lies ahead.