H—lB

2. The lectures delivered liave been published in a volume entitled Contemporary Practice in Commerce, which the Board is issuing free of charge to ex-servicemen who were qualified accountants or secretaries prior to entry into the Forces and who have had at least one year of mobilized service. 3. Similar refresher courses for local-body officers have been arranged in cooperation with the Local Bodies' Administrative Officers' Institute and the Internal Affairs Department. These will be held at Botorua and Dunedin in June and August of this year. 4. The Board is anxious to encourage large employing groups to train or re-train men who have suffered interruption to training or careers through war service and is prepared to co-operate along similar lines to those mentioned above. SECTION XII.—EMPLOYMENT (i) General 1. The continued buoyancy of demand for labour for industry, together with a marked and commendable inclination of ex-servicemen to " settle down " in employment within a reasonable time after discharge from the Forces, has rendered the problem of placement of ex-servicemen a comparatively light one. 2. Nevertheless, the organization has been provided through the National Employment Service on behalf of the Behabilitation Board to afford to all ex-servicemen seeking employment adequate facilities for making contact with suitable employers. 3. As at the 31st March, 1947, there were only 6 fit men and 13 partly fit men out of the total of 176,455 demobilized male personnel registered with the Department as seeking employment, and these men would, in the normal course, be placed within a very short time. (ii) Rehabilitation Allowances and Hardship Grants The amounts paid in the year under these headings have been comparatively small in relation to the larger number of ex-servicemen registered with the Department, due to the satisfactory employment possibilities offering and the wide range of assistance available under the social-security and war pensions legislation. The relative figures and a comparison with those of the previous year are as follows: —

SECTION XIII.—MAORI REHABILITATION (i) Administration The very large increase in the number of applications dealt with during the year furnishes evidence of the value which Maori ex-service personnel are attaching to the facilities available to them. (ii) Demobilization As at 31st March, 1947, a total of 4,598 Maori ex-servicemen and ex-servicewomen had been demobilized. Of these, 3,421 had served overseas and 1,177 had served in New Zealand.

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Years ended 31st March, 1947. 1946. £ £ Rehabilitation allowances 12,361 65,130 Grants in cases of genuine hardship 8,939 7,679