WAR PENSIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 105, 3 May 1917, Page 2

WAR PENSIONS.

j AN ECHO OF THE SOMME. NET STATE LIABILITY NEARLY £300,000. , The Pensions Board, who have been on tour through the North Island, returned to Wellington on Monday evening. NVhile they were away they put in a very busy three weeks. The main object of the tour was to see returned soldiers at tlie annual revision of their pensions. The annual value ot the new pensions put through during tne month of April was £31.1411, as compared with £25,376 for January, £26,663 for February, and .-28.210 for March; so that the tuonthly quota is increasing ail the time. Of the 400 annual revision cases, 330 of the claims, representing an annual value of £ 10.219. were granted. The total number of soldiers' claimup to date is 5023. These have been dealt with as follows: —Soldiers' pensions granted. 1015; temporary pensions. 8515; declined, 456, adjourned, 10: on hand. 27. The dependents' claims to date total 2784; and these have been disposed oi las under:—Pensions granted. 21*55: temporary pensions. 201; declined. 204: adMourned, 10; on hand. 54. Tho annual value of the 1015 soldiers' pensions is £53.613; average, £52 per I pension. [ Of the 401 wives and widows' pe.n----i sions. the annual value is £44,984: | average. -07 a year. And the yearly I value of the 1704 other dependents' penj sions is £40.957 : average. -29. The 3700 permanent pensions are at the rate of £224,790 a year, averaging £00 per pension. The gross total is OSSO pensions, of an annual value of £373,344; average £54 a year. A RESULT OF THE SOMME PUSH. To the end of -March the average annual value of peit-ious was £5_ only, instead of £54 as at the end of April, 'lite increase is due to the fact mat out ot the 300 temporary- pensions granted daring the jia-st month no less __an 145 were lull pensions, i.e., £91 per annum; SO got over 30/ a week, or more than three-quarter pensions. lilies brings the average up very considerably, lhe bulk of the men whose cases were dealt with In April had been iv the Somme push, and were, as a rule, more severely wounded than has been usual hitherto. From the gross totalis above stated — G,SS6 pensions of an annual value oi ; £373,344 —must be deducted in round figures 1,5011 pensioners who had gone on the list as at March 31st, and n-pre- j edited (at an average of £50 per pension) an annual value of £75,UUJ. 1 lie j net State liability is thu_, in round tig- I ures,, £300,000." "" j