BONUS TO SOLDIERS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 137, 6 December 1918, Page 7

BONUS TO SOLDIERS

FOR SERVICE OVERSEAS AT THE MINISTER'S DISCRETION. Long-service soldiers and dependents have a particular interest in the bonus section of the Expeditionary Forces Amendment Bill, which was introduced in the House of Representatives yesterday and put through Committee (with the exception of. a new sub-clause).

The clause relating to bonuses empowers th« Minister to pay out of War Expenses Account to those honourably discharged from an Expeditionary Force after service overseas such bonuses as are prescribed by Order-in-Gouncil. These bonuses may.be paid to widow, children, father, or mother, where, a soldier has died while serving, or ufter discharge, but cannot be claimed as a matter of right, and they may be withheld, deferred or be subject to terms as th,e Minister thinks fit.

Mr. M'Oombs (Lyttelton) said he did not think the Bill did justice to the men who had 1 enlisted in the early daye of the war when the pay was 4s a day. Ho urged that the pay for those soldiers and allowances for dependents should be retrospective, so that the early volunteers and their dependents should be put in as good position as -the later drafts and their dependents. He was .glad that the Returned Soldiers' Association had taken up this question. Delegates of the association were to meet members of Parliament next day on this subject. Therefore the Minister should move to progress so that further consideration of the Bill could be deferred till the conference- between delegates of R.S.A. and members of Parliament had token place. , Mr. Statham (Dunedin Central) asked whether any bonus would be payable to dependents of a man who died on active service overseas.

The Minister replied that the bonus consideration would be- up to the time Of the death.

The Hon. Dr. Pomare said that as far. as the Maoris were concerned they had not gone out to fight for pay or pensions; they had no Second Division League. They had gone out to fight for "God's Own Country." Mr. J. Vig6r Brown (Napier) said that when the other soldiers went out to fight they did not haggle about pay or similar questions. But now that the war was \over, it was right to recognise the rights of the men who had fought for Dr. Pomare and other members of the House.

Mr. M'Combs again appealed that an opportunity should be given to Returned soldiers to give their opinions on the Bill before the other stage was finished. The Minister said that he did not wish to prevent people interested in the Bill from having «■ chance to study it. He' was therefore willing to move to report progress after the passing of section 14 (the second to last section); Mr. M'Conibs said that members of the Eeturned Soldiers' Association throughout New Zealand did not even know that the House was considering the Bill. . Members of the executive of the Eeturned Soldiers' Association in Wellington did not have copies of the Bill till 5 p.m. (yesterday). If it had been a Licensing Bill, or any Bill affecting property, the persons conceded would not be denied an opportunity of examining a Bill before it was passed. , Section 15 was passed, and progress was reported on the new sub-clause in accordance with the Minister's promise.