CAREERS ON THE LAND

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 190, 10 May 1944, Page 4

CAREERS ON THE LAND

Rehabilitation Of Men Of The Armed Forces

FARM SUB-COMMITTEES "The functions of the recently-appointed rehabilitation farming sub-committees were explained yesterday by the Director of Rehabilitation, Colonel F. Baker. These sub-committees, he said, had been set up in 54 districts to grade applicants for farming loans and to determine what additional training might be necessary to ensure that an applicant would lie capable of managing a property of his own. The question of eligibility and the degree of assistance which should he offered, however, remained the responsibility of the local rehabilitation committee, which would refer those applicants who were eligible for assistance to the sub-com-mittee for grading. The -personnel of the farming sub-com-mittees comprised (1) the chairman, who was an experienced farmer appointed by the local rehabilitation committee, preferably a member of a rehabilitation committee and an ex-serviceman of this or the- last war. (2) A representative of the Lands and Survey Department. (3) A representative of the State Advances Corporation. (4) The secretary, a member of the staff of the local district rehabilitation office. The sub-committee had power to co-opt the field officers of the Department of Agriculture and other experienced farmers to assist them in deciding the grading of any particular applicant. For example, it was desirable that an experienced. poultry-farmer should "be called in when an application for a loan for a poultry-farm was to be considered. “There seems to have gained currency an erroneous impression that the setting up of farming sub-committees cuts away the work of the rehabilitation committees,” said Colonel Baker. “The farming sub-committees are needeel for the technical and practical work relating to land settlement and farming. The great bulk of the work to be done by the rehabilitation committees has not been affected in any way. and they are still required to supervise the rehabilitation of all exservicemen in thejr district, determine all questions of eligibility, allocate State houses, and generally to act as agents of the Rehabilitation Board in their particular district.

“As time goes on it will no doubt be found necessary to appoint sub-conunit-tees of local rehabilitation committees to assist in other fields of rehabilitation, and, in fact, this arrangement already exists in many centres.”