H—lB

SECTION I.—ORGANIZATION (i) The Rehabilitation Board 1. The names of the members of the Board are set out in Table I of the Appendix of this report. 2. The personnel of the Board remains the same as at the date of the presentation of the last annual report, except that its membership has been strengthened by the appointment as a full-time member of Colonel B. Barrington, D.5.0., 0.8. E., E.D., who served overseas with considerable distinction as Chief Administrative Officer of the 2 N.Z. Division, and his services as a Board Member have proved of the utmost value. 3. The Board met on twelve occasions throughout the year, whilst the subcommittees met on numerous occasions. (ii) The Council 1. The membership of the National Behabilitation Council is as set out in Table II of the Appendix. Additional appointments for the year were those of Colonel B. Barrington and Messrs W. A. Fox and T. G. Taylor, the last mentioned replacing Mr. R. W. Fenton as the nominee of the Dominion Executive of the New Zealand Returned Services' Association. 2. The Council met on four occasions throughout the year and continued to offer sound advice to the Minister and the Board. SECTION lI.—DEPARTMENTAL ADMINISTRATION (i) Decentralization 1. The policy of decentralization which was outlined in the report for last year as having been then put into operation has proved to be very effective. The nine District Executive Committees, which are responsible for handling loan applications, have been kept fully occupied and have proved beyond doubt that the step taken was a practicable solution of an administrative problem of considerable magnitude. 2. With increased experience it has been possible still further to delegate power to district offices, which now have full responsibility in dealing with certain classes of trade training, farm training, and educational assistance in addition to powers previously exercised. This is in keeping with the Department's ultimate objective of complete decentralization of control and making administration of individual cases substantially a local responsibility. (ii) Staff There are still important vacancies ' both for specialist work and on general administration, and until suitably qualified staff is found to fill these positions it will not be possible to delegate powers to district offices to handle work locally to as great a degree as is desired in certain important fields of rehabilitation. The Board's administrative agents, particularly the State Advances Corporation of New Zealand, the Lands and Survey Department, and Native Department, are suffering from the same staffing problems. SECTION 111.-DEPARTMENTAL AND LOAN EXPENDITURES 1. Departmental expenditure and loans authorized for the year under review totalled £15,675,514, as against £6,213,356 for the vear ended 31st March, 1945, an increase of £9,462,158 for the year. 2. Details of departmental expenditure are summarized in Table V in the Appendix, and details of loan authorizations appear in Table XV.

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