OLD AGE AND MILITARY PENSIONS

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 141, 14 June 1917, Page 7

OLD AGE AND MILITARY PENSIONS

tTo the Editor.; jjr—l was glad to sec Mr. Wesley ijj_ards' letter on this matter, and, \ e __ his statement re the pensions is Kjble to be misconstrued, that does not .]j_r the main point. The veterans ot •he Maori wars who were actually under trelj-e entitled to a pension of £36 per yjar whether they are millionaires or * npfrs. But they arc barred from receiving the old ago pension as well, atioagh there does not seem to be anything in the Act to prevent them re* tfirir-g' 'both pensions, and in the years Effl ce the Maori wars these men have tflalined equally with civilians to receive j,. So that, as Mr. Richards points , B t, a man who has risked his life to are New Zealand for the Empire only <._ three or four shillings a week more "than the people who have lived here s.icefuUv for tbx, last twenty-five years. The old soldiers who live at the Vewrans' Home have to pay 12/ per reel for board, which leayes them about 2/ for clothes, tobacco, and other recessities. We have appealed to the prixe Minister and the Hons. J. Allen jud Myers more than once to allow ties? men to receive both pensions, Thkh would only total £62 per year, asJ which they haye justly earned. All ;be Ministers profess themselves sym--atittic. but for reasons only known to tienselves refuse to make the conces--5133, a very small one when one remember? that there are only a few veterans Mi. and their number is steadily deriinaig year by year. Mr. Richards' ton-ention that the old age pension fhtrald be raised owing to the increase is the cost of living will also be endorsed by all who understand what the stragtrle for existence means just now,— It-n,"ete., E. GIBSON. Hon. Sec. Women's Political League.