PENSION GRANTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 106, 6 May 1943, Page 4

PENSION GRANTS

WOMEN'S WAR WORK

FIRST CASES IN AUCKLAND

The first appeals by members of women's services in the present war for pensions have just been heard by the Pensions Appeal Board sitting in Auckland. Both were presented on behalf of the claimants by Mr. Roy Mason, secretary of the Auckland R.S.A., one being at the request of the Waikato R.S.A. In both cases pensions were granted for a specified time. , . One case was that of a member of the W.A.A.F. who had served on an air force station in the Auckland Province and resided at Hamilton. She was at college till three months before she enlisted, at the age of 20. She was engaged in the men's mess and had no objections to the work, which she carried out without any trouble. , . She was inoculated after she had been about a week in camp, followed by two other injections. After the third she suffered pain similar to rheumatism, which she considered was due to the inoculations. A few days afterwards she was sent to her room by the camp doctor and later was taken to the camp doctor and subsequently to Auckland Hospital, where she was a patient for nearly six weeks. She was given further injections, which caused nausea and had a paralysing effect. She later improved and her helplessness wore off. Mr. Mason submitted that there were no symptoms of schizophrenia when the claimant commenced her service, and he suggested that it supervened on the inoculations. The decision of the Pensions Appeal Board war; that the appellant had shown symptoms of schizophrenia but that its onset was hastened by her service. Her condition could be regarded as a temporary aggravation, which had now ceased. A pension of £1 a week was awarded for seven months.

The second case was an appeal by a W.A.A.C. member on the grounds of neurasthenia, which the board held was not due to her service though aggravated by it. She was awarded 10/ a week from last January till June next. Several women were granted pensions as the result of disability caused by service in the last war, but they belonged to the nursing division.

• Leading-Aircraftman lan J. Wilson, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Wilson,. of 87, Aitken Avenue, Mission Bay, has gained his wings and commission. Pilot-Officer Wilson, who left New Zealand in October, 1942, is serving in Canada as an instructor.