AMENDING BILL OBJECTED TO

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 35, 10 August 1923, Page 10

AMENDING BILL OBJECTED TO

ONLY•ONE REDEEMING

FEATURE.

(JV TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

AUCKLAND, 9th August, Extreme ' dissatisfaction with the provisions of the War Pensions Amendment Bill was expressed by the executive of the Auckland Returned Soldiers" Association. A series of resolutions was passed. The first protested against the unseemly haste with which the Bill was vushed through the' House without any one being given an opportunity oF considering it, .or of. making any protest or suggestion as to amendments. The executive considered ...that the economic pension was nothing more or less than a substitution for the supplementary pension, and that unless.the granting of it was administered in ■ a much more sympathetic spirit than had b veen the case with the -supplementary pension, there would be no gain to.the pensionholder. The point that the association had so often stressed, namely, the finding of employment for'disabled men in Government Departments, had not been mentioned in the Bill, neither was it mentioned in debates.

The executive further expressed regret, that the Government had completely ignored the association's repeated requests for an increase' in the basic pension. ■ •'■•■- ■•> ,: ■ ;

Continuing, the resolution presumed that the amounts; of £8 and £6 for clothing allowance -were payable ijg respect of increased wear and tear of amputees' clothing caused by the wearing of artificial aids, and held that this obviously should be made an increase as of right, and not at the discretion of the board.

The .final resolution was to the effect that the only redeeming feature of the Bill-was the proposed establishment of an Appeal Board.