REPATRIATION SCHEME

Hokitika Guardian, 10 February 1921, Page 4

REPATRIATION SCHEME

A WONDERFUL ,SCREW

DUNEDIN, February 3,

Speaking at a complimentary banquet which was tendered to him at Cromwell ) Sir William Fraser, as chairman of the 'Ministerial Repatriation .Board, gave some interesting figures showing how wonderfully successful the repatriation scheme has been. He mentioned that 15,713 returned men had received in loan money £1,400,000 and of that sum a total of £405,000 had already been repaid in monthly instalments. That meant that in another two or three years the money used for the repatriation of these men would all he paid back to tho Dominion, and that was something to he very proud of. Proceeding to give some details, Sir William Fraser stated that 5292 loans had been granted for men entering upon small businesses amounting to £965.272; 9145 Joans, amounting to £431,868, had been granted for furniture, and 976 loans, amounting to £19,323, had been granted for tools. No fewer than 6557 men had been trained at a cost of £243,456, and the large total of 21,461, men had been placed in employment, or otherwise provided for, at a. total cost of £1,669,000. He added that in proportion to the great number of men who had “made good” under the scheme, the failures had been very few indeed; iti fact, considered in their proper relation, they were almost negligible.