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The War Effort of New Zealand

Training

Training.

In training soldiers to take their places in civil life the Department carried on the work begun by the vocational training branch before discharge. There was, however, a difference. Soldiers, while invalids, were encouraged to take up any kind of work which would bring them back into habits of industry. After discharge most of them had recovered and were able to go back to their civil occupations without requiring special training. The efforts of the Department in most instances were directed to teaching suitable trades to disabled men—those who had borne the brunt of the war. A limited number of them were totally incapacitated and could never become workers in the hive, much as they desired it, and for these the Pensions Board provided the means for an existence which at any rate was free from want. But there was a larger class of the disabled who could be brought back to take their places among the ranks of active workers in trades in which their disabilities were not a serious handicap. Bushmen with injured muscles or strained hearts could no longer wield the axe, but were taught trades such as carpentering and plumbing; men who had lost legs were trained to boot-making or clerical work. page 169Those who had a tubercular tendency were specially trained in farming so that they could take up land provided by the Government for returned soldiers.

In addition to disabled soldiers, training was also given to young men who enlisted before they had learned a trade, to apprentices and students whose training had been interrupted by war service, and to the soldiers' widows and orphans. In arranging for such training advantage was taken to a limited extent of the existing technical schools and university colleges, but it was also found necessary to provide special intensive courses for returned soldiers. An instructional boot factory was established at Auckland, and with a view of providing employment of a lighter kind, a seed-raising farm was purchased in Central Otago, and a training farm at Avonhead, near Christchurch. For general farm-training, men were sent to the Ruakura and Weraroa State Farms. During the period of training, sustenance (which did not diminish the soldier's pension) was paid on the following scale: single men £2 10s. a week, married men £3 a week, with an extra weekly allowance of 3/6 a week for each child.