WIVES AND CHILDREN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3128, 5 July 1917, Page 3

WIVES AND CHILDREN

PKOVISrON F01) SECOND DIVISION. MEN. Improved provision for the dependants of Second Division UcversisLs wiw demanded l>v -Mr. 0. K Stathnni (Dunedin Central) iit the- House of Jtepresentatiyes last evening.. He was a Second Division man himself, lie said, but lie woukl bo I'ailing in his duty if ho allowed that fact to deter him' from pressing Iho claims of thoso who might be required shortly to proceed to the front and leave wives and children behind.

"The Government must increase the scale of pensions and allowance," said Ml , . Statham. "If a married man goes to the front now and is killed, the State pays his wife :2">s. a week and his child 7s. Gd. a week up to the age of sixteen years. Those payments an; not large ■enough. 1 am sure I am voicing the opinions of the Second Division men when I say that they are not so much coiH'ornod "about tlfo'Viijjes 'of Hie soldier during his lifetime as they are about the provision that will Ire made for thp wife and children in the event uf the soldier's death. The pensions must be adequate. I appeal to the House with confidence that when the proper time comes it will make propel , provision for the dependants of the Second Division, men. I say to members that when in years to come they are enjoying comfortable incomes anil all the security and comfort that men have died to win for them, if they have not made proper provision for the vj-ives and dependants of those who have fallen they will not be able to say: 'Thank God, we have'done our duty.' - "