TO TRAIN DISABLED SERVICEMEN

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 149, 20 November 1942, Page 4

TO TRAIN DISABLED SERVICEMEN

New Vocational Centre GOVERNOR-GENERAL LAYS - FOUNDATION STONE The foundation-stone was laid by his Excellency the Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, yesterday afternoon, of the Disabled Servicemen’s Vocational Training Centre in Lloyd Street, Wellington, thus bringing nearer fruition a scheme envisaged by the New Zealand R.'S.A. as long ago as 1930 and since fostered by the Disabled Servicemen’s Re-establishment League, to whom the Rehabilitation Board bad delegated the responsibility of providing suitable vocational training for men of the forces who by reason of their war disabilities were unable to return to their pre-war occupations. His Excellency, on arrival, inspected guards of honour provided by officer cadets of the C. 5.1., and by the War Amputees’ Association respectively. “There can be no man or woman in New Zealand who is not conscious of the vast and irredeemable debt which we owe to those who have fought and

are fighting for us by sea and land and air,” said his Excellency. “By their heroism and with their sacrifices they are securing the future for us and our children. Nothing that we can say can express the measure of our gratitude, nothing that we can do '■•an repay them adequately. But this fact must serve only to spur us on to do our best;. for it is our absolute duty to do all that we can to show how genuine that gratitude is, and to show it in our actions as well as in mere words. “This training centre, and the other centres which will be built elsewhere in New Zealand, will make a really practical contribution to the welfare of the men to whom we owe so much. In this building, those who have been disabled in the service of their King and country will be taught to triunipn over their disabilities, as they" have triumphed over their enemies. “They will be taught not only to make use of the artificial limbs and other surgical applicances which science has made available for the easing of their burdens, but also they will learn to do a job so that they can take their places as full and useful citizens of the land for which they have given so much. .The ability to fend for themselves will be worth mure to them than any charity, however lavish. “The laying of this foundation-stone comes at a most appropriate time. The victory in the Battle of Egypt and the landing of Anglo-American forces in North Africa have thrilled us all. The Eighth Army, consisting as it does of men from all over the Empire, has done what we all knew it would do when given the necessary 'equipment. In this the men from New Zealand, your own sons and brothers and friends, have taken their full share. Once more has' New Zealand’s name been written large in the history of human courage and endeavour. “Such victories cannot be won without great loss and sacrifice. Some of those men will never return. Others have been maimed for life. Let us all resolve here and now never to forget what they have done for us. Let us determine that the land which they have given so much to save shall be worthy of their sacrifices. Let us vow that those who return shall find the welcome they deserve and the help which they may need. Only thus shall we keep faith with them and with their comrades whom we shall not see again.”