TRAINING OF SICK SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 135, 3 March 1919, Page 4

TRAINING OF SICK SOLDIERS

SCHEME IN OPERATION. The Minister of Defence stated jesterday that the Department's scheme for the vocational training of. soldiers prior to their discharge from, the forces was now fairly under way. . Four officers had been appointed, one to every military district, to take charge of the'workCaptain Penlington (Auckland), Lieutenant Wray (Wellington), Lieutenant Moore (Canterbury), and Lieutenant Zeisler (Otago). There are Teally two branches of this work. First of all there is the curative work, which ought to be' prescribed by the doctor iu charge of a man, and in every case this work will be of 6uch a nature as to help the man to .recover some power which he has lost as the result of his injuries. This curative work will be provided for the men in every institution in which there are soldiers requiring such work in order to get restored to health again. Then' there is the vocational training proper, which is also devised to keep the soldier occupied in such manner as may help towards his recovery, as well aB to send him back to civil life better fitted than he otherwise would have b«en to enter it again. In this branch of the training there will be instruction in such subjects as civics, economics, agriculture, and also in business subjects. The agriculture classes where possible will be combined with a certain amount of practical farming. Some farming operations will be developed at Hanmqr. In cases in which the doctor says it is feasible, vocational training in other branches will be given to the soldier. Applications are now being made quite frequently by soldiers who are not yet discharged for instruction in technical schools, and these men are being sent to the schools for the instruction whioh they seek.