REHABILITATION PLANS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5603, 9 April 1943, Page 3

REHABILITATION PLANS

COMPREHENSIVE OUTLINE GIVEN MR MOOHAN AT MORRINSVILLE A comprehensive and detailed exposition of the Rehabilitation Act and the work of the Rehabilitation Board to date was given by Mr M. Moohan, chairman of the Board, in the Morrinsville Borough Council Chambers recently. Mr Moohan spoke for an twenty minutes and covered eVe?y phase of the work of reinstating returned soldiers in civilian life. The meeting was convened by the Morrinsville R.S.A. and the president of that body, Mr A. Topham, occupied the chair. Delegates were present by invitation from the following organisations:— REPRESENTATIVE AUDIENCE Men from the present war. R.S.A.; Te Aroha, Hamilton, Cambridge, Matamata, Morrinsville. Local Bodies: Piako County Council, Matamata Borough Council, Te Aroha Borough Council, Morrinsville Borough Council. Farming Organisations: Waikato Primary Production Council, Norfolk Dairy Company, Tatua Dairy Company, Morrinsville Dairy Company, New Zealand Dairy Company, Morrinsville Branch New Zealand Farmers’ Union, Southern Thames SubProvincial Farmers’ Union, the Waikato Pig Production Council. Business and Trade: Morrinsville Chamber of Commerce, Workers’ Union Organisation. Women’s Organisations: Morrinsville W.D.F-U., Piako suL-Provincial of the W.D.F.U., Women’s War Service Auxiliary, Women’s Institute. Rehabilitation Officers: Paeroa, Hamilton, and Morrinsville Postmaster.

Also present were Messrs A. S. Sutherland, M.P. for Hauraki, and W. S. Goosman, M.P. for Waikato.

Apologies were received from the Mayor of Morrinsville (Mr W. Hetherington) and the Te Awamutu R.S.A.

BUSINESS METHODS OF REHABILITATION Introducing the speaker, Mr A. S. Sutherland said he thought, and he believed Mr Moohan agreed with him, that there was too much centralisation of Rehabilitation in Wellington. He considered that business methods should be brought into the operating of the rehabilitation scheme and bureaucracy done away with. Mr Moohan, however, was himself a returned soldier and was endeavouring to do his best for the returned men. In opening his. address Mr Moohan said the most important job after the winning of the war was preparing for the post-war period of reconstruction. With 160,000 men in the services the question of rehabilitation affected all individuals and organisations. SMALL NUMBER OF AMPUTEES Dealing with the plans of his Board to deal with those discharged from the services, Mr Moohan said that amputees should be given first treatment. There were many good and varied occupations a disabled serviceman could be employed at and Vocational Training Centres were to be established in the main centres with modern methods of teaching and recreational facilities. New Zealand had, however, been fortunate in the small number of disabled men and of the 14,000 casualties of this war only 207 were amputees and only 130 had had their limbs removed. Only one case rf)f total blindness had been reported. and this man was back at a position in the firm he had worked with before his enlistment. Amputees covered those who had lost only a toe or a finger.

PAID DURING TRAINING Mr Moohan continued by saying that boys who had had their apprenticeships interrupted and men who desired to learn a trade would be paid £5 5s during their period of training at the various trade schools in the Dominion. There would also be in operation a system of subsidising the wages of an untrained serviceman who desired employment with a private firm where he could learn a trade. Those who desired to enter a profession had not been forgotten, continued Mr Moohan, and an educational scheme provided for. the payment of £5 5s a week during the college or university term. Books would be provided free. For those who desired to attend farming instructional schools provision had been made also, and they would be paid a similar rate to that of the trade and professional trainees. PRE-FABRICATED HOUSING Discussing the housing question, the speaker said that with 23,000 building workers engaged in essential building operations or in the Army little opportunity was presented to engage in any housing programme, but as soon as essential work was completed it was hoped to get under way with an intensive housing project. The former Minister to New Zealand, BrigaP. J. Hurley, had given ,e board information of the Ameri-pre-fabricated scheme of housing, alx New’ Zealand was to build a large number of houses that scheme would have to be put into operation in New Zealand. LOANS AVAILABLE Mr Moohan gave details of loans available to the returned men. Fifty pounds was allowed to purchase tools and similar articles, £lOO for furniture, £5OO for a business, £l5OO for a house, and up to £3500 was available for the purchase of a farm. To avoid the mistakes and confusion in the rush after the last war, legislation provided for the granting of loans up to the years after the end of the war. Referring to the fact that some loans were refused because of the high price asked for houses or land, Mr Moohan said he could not see why a soldier who had fought for the counendur®d hardships and risked everything should have to pay a premium of £3OO or £4OO to a man who had been at home during the

fighting. He would never be a party to a board that allowed a serviceman to pay a premium. Apart from those already provided for, continued Mr Moohan, there were many thousands not provided for, and it would be necessary to absorb these men into primary and secondary industries. Local bodies had been circularised to find what work they could provide for returned men. It was proposed to build 16,000 homes after the war, and 95 per cent of the material for these houses could be found in New Zealand. ESTABLISHING NEW INDUSTRIES There would also be established after the war many new industries, and he hoped that the concentration of industries in the cities would not continue and that new industries would be located in provincial and country towns and the drift to the city checked.

Commenting on the high percentage of nerve cases in the present war, the speaker said that Dr. M. Brown, of the Seacliffe Mental Hospital, had started a scheme for providing light work for this type of patient, and it was hoped to enlarge this treatment as larger staff permitted. He hoped, however, that he would never see any soldier patients in a civilian asylum. Concluding, Mr Moohan said that to help in the administration of the Rehabilitation Act local committees had been set up and so far 23 were in operation throughout New Zealand. On these committees the local body, R.S.A., organised labour, farming or commercial industry, W.W.S.A., Member of Parliament and a local departmental officer were represented. They dealt with any particular question on rehabilitation in the borough. He hoped that the co-operation of the community could be gained in the task of seeing that those who Had gone away, served and suffered should be given what was fair and equitable and what was their undisputed right.