PAEROA PROTEST

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3254, 19 April 1943, Page 5

PAEROA PROTEST

rehabilitation affairs

COMMITTEE AT- THAMES

CONSTITUTION NOT APPROVED

The matter of a protest at the constitution of the Thames Rehabilitation Committee was raised by Mr Edwin Edwards, president of the Paeroa and Hauraki Plains branch of the Returned Services Association at its annual meeting on Saturday

evening. At the request of Mr Edwards, Mr T. E. Owen, the newly-appointed Rehabilitation- Officer, Paeroa, explained the procedure whereby discharged soldiers were re-absorbed into civil occupations. The function of the committee was to guide the man and to m*ake recommendations to the board in Wellington concerning the character, ability and suitability of the applicant and of the faim or ' business, etc. desired by him.

Bad Case Quoted

Members agreed that the Thames committee might do good work, but much better work would be done' by committees throughout the . district or by one committee comprising representatives from all centres between Coromandel and Morrinsville. An instance was quoted of a farm which had been on the hands of the State Advances Corporation for many years and had now been sold to a returned soldier with the approval of the Thames committee. Local men who knew the farm had no doubts that the man would have a very difficult time and would probably fail to ’ make a success of the farm.

Not Representative

It was explained that the Thames ■committee, which was to deal with the area from Coromandel to well 'beyond Morfinsville, had been constituted at a meeting- called by Mr J. Thorn, M.P. for the district, of representatives of various organisations and local bodies of Thames. No organisation outside Thames was invited. Although farming would be one of the avenues of rehabilitation the representative appointed to represent the farming industry was a Mr Canby, an estimable gentleman but one with perhaps no knowledge whatever of farming, land values, etc. An Emphatic Protest

The following motion was carried: “That this branch enters an emphatic protest at the constitution of the Rehabilitation Committee for Thames and advocates direct representation for all districts on the Thames Rehabilitation Committee. It considers that a board constituted and represented entirely from one town is not acceptable and it is of opinion that the headquarters of the committee be where the Rehabilitation Officer is stationed.