PENSIONS AS OF RIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 49, 26 August 1926, Page 11

PENSIONS AS OF RIGHT

SOUTH AFRICAN VETERANS'

REQUEST

MINISTER'S DEFINITE REPLY.

Requests made to the Minister of Pensions this morning by representatives of the South African War Vetorans' Association for further assistance for men who served in the South African campaign met with a very definite and not very favourable reply. ■

The deputation asked that the' Govornment should reduce the pension ago from 65 to 60 in the case of all South African veterans; that all South African veterans, irrespective of age, if incapacitated by reason of war service, should receive a pension; and that men who served in South Africa but who were not attested in New Zealand should also receivo pension assistance. It was suggested that a reciprocal arrangement might be made with' the Imperial Government in regard to the latter.

NO INCREASE IN PENSION YET.

In replying to tho deputation, the Minister of Pensions (the Hon. G. J. Anderson) first of all gave an emphatic denial to statements that he had agreed to increase the South African War pension from £13 per year to £26 per year. All that had been done so far was to have the matter referred to a Committee of Cabinet, which had not yet made a final decision. The matter would not be attended to this session. "It is not only yourselves that I have to consider in this matter of pensions," said Mr. Anderson. "I have to consider all the Great War men who will eventually come along as you are doing and demand a pension as of right: I tell you frankly I will not recommend Cabinet to give you a pension as of right, as the Maori War veterans have claimed, because if you have come back to New Zealand and succeeded in making a very good nest egg you have had the advantage of the laws which you protected on the battlefield. Having had the protection of these in laying aside your nice little nest egg, you have no right to come along to the country and say, 'We want special consideration for something we did on the battlefield.' If you have not succeeded in laying a nest egg, I admit you should have your South African pension. NO REDUCTION IN AGE. "In regard to reducing the pension age to sixty, I am not going to recommend anything of the sort to Cabinet, and so far as incapacity is concerned it will have to be treated on tho same lines as incapacity for the whole of the community..... Next year, if all goes well, I hope during the recess to bring before my colleagues a scheme which I have under consideration." Mr. Anderson promised to discuss the question of reciprocity with tho Old Country with the Prime Minister. If they wero asking him to give tho men who did not attest in New Zealand the extra £13 lie would tell them frankly he would not recommend Cabinet to do so, because each part of the Empire must look after its own soldiers. By going out of New Zealand to enlist, New Zealanders became Imperial soldiera. BETWEEN TWO FIEEB.

The- Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Downie Stewart) said ho hail always realised that The South Africans had justice on their side in saying that they had not got as liberal a deal as thp men of the Great War, but it was very difficult to open the subject up now. after all the time that had elapsed. Mr. Anderson was between two fires. If they said they should have a pension as a right, he could not see what the answer was to be to the men of the Great War. Ho would like to hear how they proposed to face the problem. It might not be very expensive to meet tho ease of the South African men, but look what would be involved if it was applied to an army of 100,000! It would be an enormous burden on the taxpayers of the country. "I frankly admit," said Mr. Anderson, "that a-mistake was made in giving tho pension as a right to the Maori war veterans, but I am not going to perpetuate that error. The mistake was that it was given to everyone irrespective of his means, provided that he could prove that ho was under fire."

Mr. Stewart: "There are South African veterans who are wealthy men. Are they to get the pension as -a right?"

Mr. Anderson: "That's what they ■are asking. So far as I am concerned, I am not going to recommend my colleagues to give a wealthy man a pension as of right. It is unsound in principle."