HONOURING THE VETERANS. Lord Ranfurly's Scheme.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 104, 28 June 1902, Page 8

HONOURING THE VETERANS. Lord Ranfurly's Scheme.

LORD Ranfurly's benevolent scheme for the founding of a home for those veterans of the Empire who have become settlers and colonists m New Zealand, m the light of his explanation as to the proposed methods of running it, is a highly commendable one. His pub-

hshed. project shows that he has evolved a. scheme that entirely does away with the suggestion that the home was to be run on the lines of a military barracks, where the old men would be subject to the discipline that they were probably overburdened with during their days of service. * » • There is good i*eason for hoping that the home will become an accomplished fact, and that the initiatory batch of veterans needing a haven of refuge will be housed withm a reasonable time. There is to be no "reveille, '" and no "lights out" m the suggested home. The freedom will be as complete as possible, and there will be no harassing enforcement of military details, which is so common a feature of old soldiers' homes elsewhere. w • • Naturally, there will be rules and regulations, but none of a humiliating character. The Governor proposes a common mess-table, but he doesn't make it compulsory for the veterans to roll up at the first sound of the "Cookhouse door" call, and they may have their meals in their own quarters, with their own immediate friends, if they wish. Then, to further dissipate the barrack idea, there will be no "married patch" in the ordinary acceptance of the term, for the suggestion is to give cottages to married veterans, who may live their own life undisturbed by the morning yell of the orderly sergeant or the blare of the bugle. • • • The Governor makes it clear that entrance to the home ''would not be regarded m the light of a charity, but as a meed of service," and the man who "breaks bounds" will not be "confined to .barracks" as if he were a dangerous animal, for there will be no bounds to break. Of course, all the veterans in New Zealand are not exemplary men, and the proposed home is for good conduct men only. If they misbehave seriously, of course, their places will be filled, and it is scarcely likely that the home will contain any misdemeanants, considering that it will be probably tenanted by men who, through adverse circumstances, would be destitute but for its institution. » » • Both Lord and Lady Ranfurly have identified themselves very warmly during their residence in New Zealand with the betterment of those who, through stress of circumstances, required assistance. Lady Ranfurly has given very practical support to the Society for the Protection of Women and Children. She has also been instrumental in entertaining sailor-men, whose lives are by no means always bright. Both will be gratefully remembered in this colony for the good they have done m this direction, and the Governor's name will ever be perpetuated through his scheme 1 for the building of aoa Empire Veterans' Home