THE Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER MONDAY, MAY 5, 1919. DISABLED SOLDIERS.

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XVII, Issue 5609, 5 May 1919, Page 2

THE Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

MONDAY, MAY 5, 1919. DISABLED SOLDIERS.

Here shall the Frees the People’s Right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain. Here Patriot Truth her glorious precept* draw. Pledged to Religion Liberty and Law.

All who take a reasonable view' must admit that New Zealand lias made a good beginning in the matter of enabling disabled men to qualify for suitable employment. In the first place there uis statutory provision that a soldier’s pension, once granted, is not to be affected by any subsequent increase ,iu bis earning power. Any % danger of a man being penalised as a result of his oivn enterprise is thus obviated. At the same time training facilities are offered at training schools. State farms, and elsewhere, and reasonably liberal allowances are made to soldiers and their dependents during the training period. Allowances are available also in the case of ex-soldiers who are undergoing a course of training with private employers. On the whole, the Government seems to have bud a. inundation upon which it may confidently base such further measures as may prove to be necessary in the interests of disabled men. The essential test of Ibe measures instituted wijl appear, of course, in the proportion of disabled men enabled to take up suitable and remunerative work and in the proportion of failures, if there are any. The fullest possible information on these points, and generally in regard to the re-education of the disabled, ought to be made public at frequent intervals. That this policy of publicity has not already been adopted may be in part accounted for by the fact Hint a considerable proportion of our disabled soldiers are still being eared for in England. An article from the London correspondent of the Dominion mentions that out of a total of more than 800 limbless soldiers —that is, men who have lost at least a foot or the whole ol the lowc r portion of a hand—about half were, when be wrote, still m England undergoing special educational course. The category of disabled men is not, of course, confined to the limb less. In America it has been found that the problem of vocational re-educa-tion is by no means wholly that of the cripple or the maimed, “It is a problem,” to quote an official publication of [recent date, “of the man who has a complication of troubles cr injuries that, while surgical, do not amount to dismemberment, The most numerous cases will he those requiring medical rather than surgical treatment.” No doubt New Zealand’s experience in tins matter will parallel that of the United States. The number of men cl'assecl as disabled and still to be provided for must be ■ considerable, and no more snored duty rests upon the people ol this country than that of seeing that every one of these men is given all pus sable assistance towards resuming, the battle o', life under the best condition-; hia remaining powers will permit. In whatever steps are taken to extend existing measures on behalf of disabled soldiers our authorities ought to. give full heed to what is befng done in other countries. In Canada and the United states, ns well as in European coun.iiica, the re-education of the disabled has been organised directed with

creditable enterprise. The practice of these countries ; is marked generally by a fixed determination, while opening the greatest possible variety of eninloy- ' ir.cnt, to avoid fanciful experiments. In this country also the aim should ne to j enable as many disabled men as possible Ito become productive workers. This might-be urged on economic grounds, but the object eh icily aimed at in training the disabled is not to increase production. The strongest reason for giving the training a strictly practical turn is that the disabled men who are cnj aided to resume productive work are U far more likely to he contented than g if they arc diverted into loss useful oc--8 cupations.