DISCHARGED SOLDIERS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 146001, 6 December 1917, Page 2

DISCHARGED SOLDIERS.

TRAINING FOR TRADES. SOME NEW PROVISIONS. PEE PEBS3 ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON, Dec. 5. The, Attorney-General, referring to the regulations suspending the provisions of industrial awards and agreements. in so far as they prevent or restrict the training or employment of discharged soldiers, said the object was to provide means by which discharged soldiers who are disabled or partly disabled may bo trained in a trade or industry. The department made a beginning months ago by offering to provide free tuition at technical schools and on State farms, and later on, in the case of men wishing to learn trades at technical schools, the department undertook to provide £1 a week above tba war pension to cover the board and lodging of . approved soldier students. Under this system ,63 discharged soldiers enrolled for tuition in technical schools. Of these 63 men. 12 were placed in employment as the result of the tuition received, nine left the classes to take employment offered them aiuj the remaining 42 were still attending the schools. Mr. Herdman said: “To induce disabled soldiers to embrace the offer of help made by the Government, the Cabinet has generously authorised me to agree with the soldier that whilst being trained to a trade, he may be paid, in addition to any wage, agreed npon by an inspector of factories with the employer, after consultation with the secretary of the union concerned with the trade, the difference between that wage and the minimum wage in the trade, or the sum of £3 per week, whichever amount is the smaller.”

After outlining the on which this authority had been given, Mr.' Herdman said the pecuniary assistance offered by the State was in addition to any sum to which the discharged soldier may be entitled 1, by way of pension, and was open to disabled soldiers only. The soldier returning to New Zealand suffering from no serious disability could rely upon the cordial help of the department to get suitable work, but the department could not undertake to teach him a trade-