PARLIAMENT & PENSIONS

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 133, 2 December 1915, Page 2

PARLIAMENT & PENSIONS

Replying to Mr. Fletcher's circular to members of Parliament suggesting that a. special session should be 'held to consider the question' of amending the Pensions Act, Mr. Thomas M. Wilford member for Hutt, has written as follows :— ''Here is my reply to your circular: I cio not credit the ' five-figure' expense, mentioned in the press, of calling Parliament together. I think, however, there may be another way out, and here is my suggestion: It will cost very little for the Premier to circularise members immediately asking for their telegraphed consent to an enlargement of the powers of the Pensions Board in order that full justice may be done to all. Tho Pensions Board is hampered by the wording of the Act or regulations which it has to work under. Let the Board inform the Premier what extra legislative power is required in order that there may be justice to all, and then a circular to members asking for that power will be, I am certain, unanimously granted consenting thereto, and Parliament can, when assembled next year, make good the acts of the Board and authorise the payments made beyond the scope of the Act and regulations. This is an exceptional time, and exceptional steps must be taken if they are deemed necessary, even if such steps have to be sanctioned later on.' Lei us remember that such a course as I suggest is not without precedent. May I say that Now Zealand is running part of its share of this great war by the extraordinary method o£ public subscriptions, and need not hesitate to employ the method I now suggest, even if it is an extraordinary one."