The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1944. IS REHABILITATION BEING FUMBLED?

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 232, 28 June 1944, Page 4

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1944. IS REHABILITATION BEING FUMBLED?

It has become apparent that there is a wide and growing feeling of dissatisfaction in ex-service circles with the official- machinery of rehabilitation in this countiy. At yesterday’s session of the annual conference arranged by the New Zealand Returned Services Association council, the president (Mr. B. J. Jacobs) expressed that feeling when he said that the association, “was frankly disappointed .. . . at the set-up of the rehabilitation edifice in contrast with what it had originally envisaged.” He went on to refer to the constitution of , the board, pointing out that instead of being the strong, independent national body required for the huge post-war task which will confront the community, it exists as a patchwork organization, consisting substantially of State departmental officers acting on a part-time basis under the chairmanship of the Minister. A few days ago, at a conference called in Auckland by another ex-service group, the Second N.Z.E.F. Association, the lag and inadequacy of the housing side of rehabilitation was strongly commented upon by one speaker. Something, he said, was terribly wrong, and promises made to the sbldiers were proving to be empty. His question—“ What will happen in the first year of demobilization is one which all thinking citizens will echo, for the shortcomings of the scheme, as already revealed, relate to the rehabilitation of fewer than 25,000 of the total number of men serving overseas. If the board and its ancillary organizations cannot meet the needs of this body of men, together with home service demobilizations—most of whom, incidentally, have been discharged not in large groups, but in driblets over a fairly lengthy period—what can it be expected to do when the main flood of demobilization begins? The original Rehabilitation Board was appointed in February, 1942, and reconstituted in November of last year when the newlyappointed Minister of Rehabilitation (Major Skinner) took up his duties. The board then consisted of the Minister as' chairman, Jhe Director of Rehabilitation (Lieut.-Colonel F. Baker), two full-time members (Messrs. S. W. Gaspar, Dunedin, and A. W. Batten, Wellington), the Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Ashwin), and Mr. H. L. Cullen, M.P. In May of this year the Minister announced that the board had been “strengthened by the appointment of representatives of the State Advances Corporation, the Land and Survey Department and the Native Department.” Thus, today, the board consists of its ministerial head, a Government member of Parliament, and. no fewer than four departmental representatives, acting on a part-time basis, together with the director and two full-time members.. . Whatever the merits of individual members may be, this establishment has the undesirable character of a politically-dominated body,' with a preponderance of bureaucratic representation by men who are ip a position to give only part of their attention to the urgent national responsibility placed in their hands. The president of the R.S.A. has said that:.

The basic principles of what the association envisaged were that the Rehabilitation Department should be self-contained, utilizing only as agents the available facilities of Government departments; that there should be a Rehabilitation Board of five fullypaid men all Independent of Government departmental control. Clearly the existing board falls far short of this, and. there is likely to be a large body of public agreement with the opinion that in the makeshift, politically-influenced structure of the board itself lies the basic reason for fumbling and lack of administrative vigour. The position must not be permitted to drift. Every month that passes brings the community closer to the time when, unless performance is equal to demands infinitely greater and more complex than those being encountered today, this Dominion will be let down in its first and most important post-war duty.