RELIEF FOR EX-SOLDIERS

Otago Witness, Issue 4032, 23 June 1931, Page 44

RELIEF FOR EX-SOLDIERS

CIVIL RE-ESTABLISHMENT ACT MEASURE TO BECOME OPERATIVE. WELLINGTON, June 19. An announcement that the Government is taking immediate steps to put into operation the Disabled Soldiers’ Civil Reestablishment Act, which yvas passed last year, yvas made by the Minister of Defence (Mr J. G. Cobbe) to-day. Although the Act has been on the Statute Book since October, the Government has been unable, oyving to the depression and the financial stringency, to set the machinery in motion. As financial arrangements have noyy' been completed it has been decided to appoint almost immediately local advisory committees, nominations for which have already been received from all interested bodies except the New Zealand Employers’ Federation, ami at the same time appoint employment officers who yvill co-operate yvith the committees. When these appointments have been made the Pensions Department will be in a position to receive and deal with applications from ex-soldiers wishing to avail themselves of the provisions of the Act. OBJECTS OF THE ACT LOCAL ASSOCIATION’S ACTIVITIES. The Soldiers’ Civil Re-establishment Act provides for the appointment of local advisory committees in respect of specified districts for the making of arrangements yvith employers for the employment of disabled soldiers, the establishment and conduct of schemes for vocational training of disabled soldiers, and the making of payments to such returned soldiers to supplement their earnings in their employment. The president of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association (Mr W. F. Forrester) , yvhen questioned regarding the announcement, explained to our representative las week that nominations for the personnel of the local advisory committee in each case came from the employers’ organisation, a yvorker’s organisation, the Red Cross Society, the Patriotic Association or a similar body, and the Returned Soldiers’ Association in each district. There would also be a Government representatiy’e on each committee, and he would be the local registrar of pensions, and would be the chairman of the committee. The duties of the committees would be to go into the individual cases of disabled returned men. The local Soldiers’ Association had already advertised and had a list of about 400 men, yvho would be examined when the Dunedin Committee had come into existence. In order to aid the work of the committee, the association had sent out forms to these men, with the object of obtaining details regarding their disabilities, occupations, and the time they had been out of work. The committee would discuss yvith employers the question of finding suitable yvork for disabled men, and it yvould formulate a policy yvhich could be followed by the v’ocational officers who yvould be appointed. Mr Forrester said that the Dunedin Association was of the opinion that the committees should first of all be set up, the appointment of the vocational officers being left until a later date, when the preliminary yvork had been done by the committee. He pointed out that, so far, no ir»lication had been given of where the money for the salaries of vocational officers yvas to be obtained, but he understood that the Government had already approached the Canteen Fund Trust Board for assistance. All returned soldiers who considered that they yvould be affected by the Act, Mr Forrester said, yvould be yvell-advised to communicate with either the Returned Soldiers’ Association or the Pensions Department. He also pointed out that the Act provided for soldiers yvho had been disabled in the Boer War.