SUBSIDISED WAGES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 137, 6 December 1929, Page 12

SUBSIDISED WAGES

GOVERNMENT OFFICER'S

OPINION

That subsidised employment and training offered the best prospects of success in the case of the employable economic pensioner, -was the opinion voiced by Mr. E. Kiddie, pffieer-in-charge of the Repatriation branch,

State Advances Office. He suggested that an improvement in the case of the unemployable.man could best be effecteii by providing him with some occupational activity in his own home under the supervision of the vocational aftercare officer. When it had been proved by experience that the subsidy scheme was inadequate to deal with present conditions and that something more was needed, it would then, he thought, be time enough to consider the establishment of special workshops for disabled, men, farm colonies, etc. "I would, therefore, suggest," he said, the following:— 1. Revive the "subsidised wages" scheme for the training and employment of disabled soldiers in factories, workshops, farms, and other pursuits as inaugurated by the Discharged Soldiers' Information Department, and carried on by the Repatriation Department.

«. Revive, if necessary, authority to enable an unemployable economic pensioner .to acquire or build a home under the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act. Get authority to collect interest, sinking fund, and outgoings from the economic pension. 3. Appoint a chief vocational aftercare officer in Wellington and four district officers at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. 4. Set up honorary committees where necessary to advise and assist the district vocational officer in all matters pertaining to the rehabilitation of the disabled soldier and economic pensioner vie committee might consist of the following members: The pensions doctor, the director of the technical school the secretary E.S.A., the inspector of facto--ies, the employer, and the secretary of cuo trades union concerned. "The three latter would constitute the wages" committee necessary under Training Order-in-Council. Representatives of other public bodies, say the patriotic Association, the Employers' Association, etc., could, of course, be added. '

COST OF TRAINING.

Mr. Kiddle said ho was of opinion that- a good proportion of the men whose position the commission was set up to inquire into could bo absorbed into existing trades and industries including farming, or into the general commercial life of the community if employed and trained as subsidised workers. The statutory authority still existed, and although the trainee would be older than the bulk of the men trained by the Repatriation Department, he considered that there would not be any great difficulty *n placing them. It would be unreasonable to expect the results to be so good but quite a fair measure of success could be confidently looked for. The cost of training a man for, say, two years would be about £156, approximately what a single man, unemployed would draw as economic pension for the same period. If the training was successful the liability of the economic pension fund then ceased altogether to the mutual benefit of all concerned The disability pension should be absolutely fixed for at least tho period of the training. Tho men need all the encouragement and incentive that could be given them. He thought that it would be impossible to get very maw light jobs for disabled men at a living wage, but a judicious use of the subsidised wages scheme should help to solve the difficulty. He would not be in .favour of the setting up of special workshops for the employment of men nor of the organisation of selling depots.- The witness also said that ho would not favour placing men on small farms of their own.

The Commission adjourned till Monday,