NEVER BUSIER

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 49, 26 August 1921, Page 3

NEVER BUSIER

AND MORE WORK AHEAD

WELLINGTON WAR RELIEF

ASSOCIATION.

At no time since its inception has the Applications Committee of the War, Belief Association been busier, and there is abundance of evidence that the next few years to come will be just as arduous. Those facts were made clear at yesterday's meeting of the association, when the usual reports were presented. Mr. A. Macintosh was in 4he chair.

The Applications Committee reported that the total number of claims received during the period 27th July to 22nd August, 1921, was 316, comprising 41 new applications and 275 renewals and reconsiderations. Twenty-seven of the new applications were the association's responsibility, and included 22 claims by ex^nembers of the N.Z.E.F., four by men who served with the Imperial Army, and one by an ex-member of the' Australian force; The remaining 14 were the responsibility of other societies, to whom, after investigation, they had been forwarded. There were 180 cases still under action; of these 107 were the association's responsibility, and included six Imperial and one Australian case. The remaining 73 were the responsibility of other kindred bodies. • All cases still under action would be disposed of within a week.

The committee reported that no change had occurred in respect of the diversity of' the nature of the claims submitted to it, which included grants of tools of trade to carpenters, cabinetmakers, bootmakers, plumbers, etc. (These were awarded because hardship would have been inflicted upon those concerned in respect to repayment of a loan for acquisition of the tools required, had such been advanced by the Repatriation Department). Other grants were made in connection with maternity ' expenses, payment of tradesmen's accounts, of cost of board and lodging, for living expenses pending receipt of war pensions, and in other directions too varied to be enumerated. There was a small reduction in the number of applications being received as compared with the number lodged a year ago, but the actual work now involved in .dealing with claims was much greater, partly because the lapse of time since the armistice renders it more difficult to establish the actual degree of physical impairment or financial hardship, and liecause the cases were of a more complex nature than they used to be. . Owing to the association's geographical position, the services rendered by the committee to other societies again showed a heavy increase, particularly to the similar societies in the Wellington provincial district. Many ex-members of the N.Z.E.F. having left the Dominion applied from all parts of the world for indirect assistance; other men —perhaps being unaware of the assistance of the small local society in their district —applied sometimes under the impression that Wellington ..was, the headquarters of war relief associations; and yet other bodies in Australia and elsewhere sought assistance in respect to applications lodged with them by letter from New Zealand; It would therefore be easily perceived that the volume of resulting Correspondence was much greater than that arising out of claims for direct assistance, and for which the association was- responsible. For instance, the present inward and outward mail was 1200 per cent, greater than it was in 1916. , ■ FINANCE. The Finance Committee reported thai it had dealt with seven applications for 1 assistance exceeding £50. Of these claims, four were for assistance (total £477) to acquire residential property; one was in regard to temporary suspension of repayment of the association's loan of £100 to enable a disabled soldier to purchase his own residence; one was for the committee to authorise i disposal of a motor-car, part cost pf which was advanced by the association as a loan to a disabled soldier to assist him to extend the electrical engineering business wherein he had established himself, and in which venture he subsequently failed; and the other was for a claim for a loan of £250 in respect to the applicant's farming operations. Two of the four applications for assistance to purchase houses were granted, loans totalling £260 being approved, because both the applicants were suffering physical impairment, and, in addition, there was economic loss present in one case, andin the other unusual domestic circumstances. The other two (£227) were declined, as there was no war disability whatever. Temporary suspension of repayment of the loan . was approved; authority for disposal of the motor-car-at little, if any, loss—was. given ; and the application last referred to above was declined for several reasons, amongst which was the fact that committee considered that in awarding a loan they would very probably have succeeded only in placing the applicant in further difficulties. There were several applications not yet considered. The financial statement disclosed that expenditure during July amounted to £1097 lls 2d. and the income to £386 12s 4d.- Credit balances at the hank as at 31st July totalled £2975 18s lid. Investments as at 31st July comprised: Fund A, Public Trustee, £29,000; Fund B banks £14,000, P. 0.5.8. £757 14s 7d; Fund C, Wellington City Council, £2335 9s 3d; total, £46,093 3s lOd. The total of available funds at the end of July was £49,089 2s 9d.