7

H.—3o

The chart below shows the number of men for whom training has been arranged each month, and the total number of men actually in training on the 20th June, 1920.

TRAINING.

After-care Work. A number of men so incapacitated through war services that they are unable to resume their pre-war occupations have drifted into purposeless channels, and it was felt, when the men had ceased returning to the Dominion in large numbers each month, that some special steps should be taken by the Department to assist such men, and persuade them to view their lives from a different standpoint, and endeavour to regain their former independence as useful citizens. Several serious forms of war disability tend to make the soldier think that he can only live comfortably by following some form of "blind alley" employment, which in many cases not only retards his progress from a medical standpoint, bud weakens his grip and destroys his ambition. The Department therefore, after a careful study of the psychology of disabled men generally, established an "After-care" Section to especially look after the welfare of tubercular, limbless, blind, and other badly disabled men. Lists of all such men who have returned to the Dominion were prepared, and the Director-General of Medical Services advises us of all convalescents being discharged from hospitals or sanatoria upon the completion of their treatment. Although the District Boards and Local Committees throughout the Dominion are and have been paying particular attention to the needs of disabled men, it has been found necessary to appoint in each district special After-care Officers to travel throughout the country looking up the men whose names and addresses are shown in their respective districts. For the sake of convenience the various disabilities are divided into four categories—viz., tubercular, limbless, blind, and general—and cards and records made up mainly from the reports of these officers are kept at Head Office, and show the progress made by each after-care client in his effort to rehabilitate himself. Tuberculosis. —Undoubtedly one of the most serious war disabilities is tuberculosis; as, although it may be apparently "cured," there is always danger of the disease recurring unless special care is taken by the patient as regards suitable occupation, healthy surroundings, and adequate nourishment, &C. Special attention has to be paid to the men suffering from this disease, as, apart from their weakened physical condition, they are often of peculiar temperament. Many of them are unable to do a full day's work regularly, and on this account it is frequently very difficult to secure for them suitable employment. It is generally recognized that the one avenue of suitable repatriation for these men is light farming, and therefore the Department has a set policy which when carried out assists the tubercular man to improve his health and prospects. The After-care Officers, often with a good deal of trouble, locate a man who is working at an unsuitable occupation at a fair wage; and have to persuade him to leave that calling and start afresh, to learn, say, one or more of the lighter branches of farming. He is then, after medical examination, sent to the Tauherenikau Training-farm, where, with the healthy outdoor and regular life and wholesome food, his health is greatly improved, and in time he learns enough