AN EXCELLENT SUGGESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1921, Page 4

AN EXCELLENT SUGGESTION.

At the recent function when the members of the New Plymouth Repatriation Board were entertained by the chairman (Mr. C. H. Weston), the latter emphasised the desirability of extending the principles of repatriation work to the general community, in order that timely help could be given to those young men, to whom it would be a great boon. The signal success which 'has crowned the praiseworthy and painstaking efforts of the repatriation boards clearly demonstrates the advantages connected with giving the right kind of help to the rirht at the right time.

It should not be at all difficult to devise a scheme for utilising the money repaid by the repatriated soldiers for the purpose of giving similar help to deserving members of the community—young men of ability, character, courage and determination to make good. Such a scheme would surely prove of inestimable value as an appreciable factor in the future of the Dominion, for, given the opportunity when on the threshold of life and with active work, ■such men might be relied upon to make good. Of course, the personal equation counts for a great deal in all such matters, and the way in which the returned men have emerged from this test should inspire confidence in the success of any extension scheme. The money advanced could not be put to a better use than by creating a great national asset in utilising the energies of the Dominion’s sons to the best advantage, and it would be .fairly certain that any scheme of this nature administered with the same care, and on much the same lines as those adopted by the repatriation boards, would be most successful. The Government would do well to give this matter serious and sympathetic consideration.