The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1902. A HOME FOR OUR VETERANS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 115, 16 May 1902, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1902. A HOME FOR OUR VETERANS.

For the cause that lacks assistance For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance And the good that -we can do.

At yesterday's meeting of the Empire Veterans' Association, His Excellency the Governor brought under discussion a matter to which he had already referred when distributing decorations to our veterans a short time ago. His Excellency then mentioned that he was communicating with the Incorporated Soldiers' and Sailors' Help Society with reference to the objects of that organisation, and yesterday he read a' letter on the subject which he had received from the secretary. The letter stated that the purpose of the Society is to provide homes for British sai'ors and soldiers throughout the Empire, and though New Zealand "had not yet been included in : the Society's programme, the secretary Sees no reason why the benefits of the scheme should not be extended to tins colony. It was to rouse interest in this matter that His Excellency addressed the Veterans' Association yesterday. Most people will be astonished to learn on the unimpeachable authority of Capt. Daveney that there are now in Now Zealand about 7000 old Imperial soldiers, whose service dates back us far as the end of the Maori wars. Many of these have suffered throughout their later lives from the privations or physical injuries ' that they have received ''hi fighting for our homes' and families or for the Empire. Few soldiers who have not risen above the ranks are ever able to make any comfortable provision for their old age. and with the sense of personal dignity, inseparable from true courage, fey." old soldiers are willing to receive charity. Their pen-

sions are in most cases quite inadequate to their requirements, and many of these men, whom w? should be proud to honour for what they have done for us and their country, have drifted down^ through want and destitution to a pauper's grave. Then we have to remember, that we have sent over 0000 men, to South Africa, and that the majority of these will return far less capable than before of making a successful struggle in life. Even those who have not lost a limb, or ruined their constitutions in South Africa, have in many cases surrendered positions -which they cannot expect to regain. Moreover, as His Excellency pointed out, large numbers of our young men not attached to any of our contingents have done good work for the Empire in South Afr'ca, and these, too, should be considered in estimating the debt that we, in. common with the whole Empire, owe to our. defenders. The Government cannot be expected to make satisfactory provision for all such cases, and we have to fac? the certainty that for the next two generations the country will contain a large number of men who are Jtss able than ordinary civilians to provide for, themselves, and whom we are under a serious obligation to treat, if not with especial honour, at least with t:;e amount of consideration involved in providing for their material needs in extreme old age. These are the facts that have aroused His Excellency's generous sympathy, and he made a powerful appeal to the Veterans' Association on behalf of his scheme. His Excellency has already written to H.E.H. the Princess Christian, who is President of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Help Society,' and also to the Prince of Wales, explaining his views, and has formally applied to the Help Society for Its assistance in establishing a veterans' home in New Zealand. As His Excellency remarked, "suc,h an institution would naturally be located either in Auckland, or Taranald, as the great majority of the old veterans have settled in these provinces. The home which His Excellency contemplates is not to be a duplicate of the charitable institutions where old soldiers

are now often compelled to drag out the last few; years of life in a monotonous existence little removed in their eyes from penal- servitude, and to .'them almost as degrading. His Excellency spoke feelingly of the want of liberty and Independence from which men in such a position : must suffer, and he protested against j the compulsory separation of husband from wife, a restriction so unendurable that many of these old men submit to abject poverty rather than obey it. In such a home as His Excellency desires all reasonable freedom shall be allowed, husband and wife shall spend the end of life together, and every effort shall be made to provide at least some small degree of comfort for their declining years. We think that His Excellency can be sure that his kindly words and generous enthusiasm on behalf of our veterans will command a large degree of public sympathy. The establishment of such a home, as he suggests, with accommodation for-forty inmates, is, of course, a matter of considerable expense. But when we hear what reply the Help Society, with which His Excellency is corresponding, gives to bis appeal, we hope that the Veterans' Association will take

the matter up in earnest. There are

certainly few objects 'which the general public would be so fully justified in supporting in a generous and openhanded way; The example set by the United' States after the Civil War is certainly not to be followed by us; but even the'indiscriminate and reckless American pension system was the creation of generous and patriotic impulses, and we would do well to take the lesson to heart. The English nation has been in the past far too careless of its obligation to those who spend the best part of their lives in upholding the Empire on sea and ! land., The niggardly and grudging way in which British sallorf are treated is a dishonour to our splendid naval traditions; and in spite of all the enthusiasm over the South African war there are only too many proofs to be discovered that the majority of people regard our soldiers in time of peace as an inferior class to whom personal consideration and social privilege may safely be denied. This is a truly contemptible frame of mind for a great nation to manifest; and vVe cannot show too soon that we have no sympathy with it. His Excellency's suggestion that a veterans' home, on the lines he has indicated, would be a worthy memorial 01 those New Zealanders who have fallen in South Africa, will, we believe, meet with hearty approval; for it would enable us, not only to pay fitting hbnour to the dead, but to show in a practical and rational w^ay that we htve not forgotten the claims of the no less deserving and gallant survivors.