BACK IN CIVIL LIFE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 15, 11 April 1947, Page 8

BACK IN CIVIL LIFE

SMOOTH PROCESS FEW EX-SERVICEMEN SEEK EMPLOYMENT A total of 179,096 ex-servicemen of the recent war are recorded with the Rehabilitation Department as having either returned from service overseas or having been discharged from service with the home forces. Of that total, 125,716 were returned servicemen, 1388 were returned servicemen, 47,696 discharged homeservicemen and 4246 discharged home-service women. These figures record the position as at the end of February, at which date 28 ex-ser-vicemen were registered as seeking employment. Of these 14 were fit for light work only. “The above posiiton,” says a statement from the Rehabilitation Board, “can be regarded as highly satisfactory. It is possibly unique in being the first occasion in any country after the war that the unemployment figure for war veterans has been so infinitesimal.”

The statement goes on to analyse the position as under:— Ex-servicemen placed with preservice employer 2171; placed with subsidy "with pre-service employer 1508; placed by themselves with preservice employer, including the civil service 62,021; placed with subsidy with other private employer 4389; placed without subsidy with other private employer 14,929; self-placed with other private employer 45,827; placed with subsidy in State employment 146; placed without subsidy in State employment 1966; selfplaced in State employment 2468; placed with subsidy on intermediate therapeutic scheme 11; depending on private means 610; action closed as refusing all help 519; enrolled for placement (fully fit) 14; enrolled for placement (fit for light work only) 14.

Returned to own business 4522; returned to own farm 2918; acquired own business 8203; acquired own farm 3443; left New Zealand *416; unable to be traced 369; temporarily lost contact with 752; established a home (women) 1881; died since leaving the services 632. Training at centres of the Rehabilitation Board, on full time courses at universities and colleges with rehabilitation assistance or at centres for the disabled and blinded: Carpentry 2053, plastering 92, bricklaying 92, painting, paperhangng and glazing 261, farming 212, unisersities and colleges 1321, at centres of Disabled Servicemen’s Reestablishment League 250, at N.Z. St. Dunstan’s home for blinded servicemen 18.

Not yet discharged 3926; returned to military service 1871; on privilege leave 3043; serving civil sentences 62; in mental institutions 114; in hospitals, sanatoria, etc. 565; recuperating though not as hospital inmates 1802; intentions undecided but following up 3775. . “A feature of the above figures apart from the absence of any employment problem,” adds the statement, “is the large number of exservicemen who have placed themselves in the country’s industrial life by their own efforts. It is a tribute to their enterprise and initiative and has helped largely towards making the process of rehabilitation in this country as smooth as it undoubtedly has been.”