DISCHARGED SOLDIERS

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1917, Page 5

DISCHARGED SOLDIERS

TRAINING FOR TRADES. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Dec. 5. The Attorney-General, referring to the regulations suspending the provisions of industrial awards and agreements, in so far as they prevent or restrict the training or employment of discharged soldiers, said the object was to provide means by which discharged soldiers may be trained in a trade or industry. The department made a beginning months ago by offering to provide free tuition at technical schools and on .State farms, and later on, in the case of men wishing to learn trades at technical schools, the department, undertook to provide £1 a week above the war pension, to cover the board and lodging of approved soldier students. Under this system G3 discharged soldiers enr- lied'for tuition in technical schools. Of ;hese 03 men, 12.were placed in employment as the result of the tuition received, nine left the classes to take employment offered them, and the remaining 42 were still attending the schools, Mr, Herdman said: "To induce disabled soldiers to embrace the ofl'er of help made by the Government, the Cabinet has generously authorised me to agree with the soldier that whilst being trained to a trade, he may be paid, in addition to any wage agreed upon by an inspector o$ factories with the employer, after consultation with the secretary of the union concerned with the trade, the difference between that wage and the minimum wage in the trade, or the sum of £3 per week, whichever amount is the smaller."

After outlining the conditions on which' this authority had been given, Mr. Herdman said the pecuniary assistance offered by the State was in addition to any sum to whidh the discharged soldier may be entitled by way of pension, and was open to disabled soldiers only. The soldier returning to New Zealand suffering from no serious disability could rely upon the cordial help of the department to gf-t suitable work, but the department could not undertake to teach him a trade.