Funeral Benefit Sought

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30398, 24 March 1964, Page 3

Funeral Benefit Sought

(.V.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 23. The institution of a funeral benefit and provision of optical benefits are recommended in remits to the forty-eighth annual conference of the Labour Party to be held in May. Other recommendations included under the heading of Social Security and health are:—

That the means test at the age of 60 be abolished. That on receipt of a general wage order all benefits be raised pro rata. That the earnings of widows be unrestricted without their pensions being affected. That persons in receipt of age, disability, invalidity or war benefits receive free medical service from practitioners, the doctor being responsible for claiming the refund. That an institution under public ownership and control be established to provide for the acquisition and distribution of drugs and medicines. The abolition of the bond system in the training of primary and secondary school teachers is the basis of a remit under education. Other remits urge that all State post-primary schools be of the co-educational multilateral type, that a committee be set up to inquire into sixth and upper sixth form curricula and university entrance requirements, and that fulltime university students be awarded £l5O bursary a year with boarding allowance for those living away from a university centre. Housing Remits Under the heading of housing, remits seek:— An increase to £l2OO a year in permissable income to qualify for a 3 per cent loan. Priority for newly-weds and migrants in State housing. A programme of high-density housing for the aged folk and the development of satellite cities for the rapidly increasing population.

A land and agriculture remit calls for an international conference of primary producers to consider the forma-

tion of a world marketing authority to handle the marketing of agricultural products and raw materials with a view to achieving a more even balance of trade between industrial and non-in-dustrial states.

The Ombudsman, hire-pur-chase and ruling rates sur-

veys are all subjects included in policy remits. They call for support for the introduction of regulations governing hire-purchase agreements, the nationalisation of the importation and wholesale distribution of petroleum and the abolition of the office of Ombudsman. Another remit recommends that the authority of the Ombudsman be extended to (1) cover all government undertakings, and (2) investigate allegations of administrative excess or deficiency by officers of local government agencies. A further remit urges that when ruling rates surveys are carried out by the State Services Commission all wages and salaries in private industry should be taken into consideration.

Other recommendations seek the staggering of annual holiday leave and a 35-hour working week. External Affairs Remits proposed under external affairs and defence, call for a review of New Zealand’s participation in military treaties such as A.N.Z.U.S. and 5.E.A.T.0., a day of national demonstration against the proposed French nuclear tests in the Pacific, and the use of New Zealand armed force only for police action within the framework of the United Nations with the sole exception occasioned by direct military aggression against New Zealand from overseas.

Another remit recommends that deductible allowances for income tax purposes be extended to cover all local body rates, transport costs incurred in travelling to and from place of employment, union fees payable under industrial awards, purchase of trade manuals and tools of trade and school boarding fees. The extension of the fishing limit to 15 miles is also called for.