A SOLDIER'S END

Evening Post, Volume 50, Issue 50, 27 August 1926, Page 8

A SOLDIER'S END

IN STRESS OF POVERTY

PLUCKY WIFE'S STRUGGLE.

The difficulties in allotting responsibility for the payment of war pensions are admittedly many, more especially as men ramble over the world before settling clown. A peculiarly sad case of this kind was brought before the annual conference of South African War Veterans by Mr. H. C. Thompson, a Timaru delegate. The soldier, in this instance, was born in Cornwall. At the time o£ the Smith Africanl War he was serving in the British South African Mounted Police, and, when his time expired, in 1900, lie joined Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, on the disbandment of which he was discharged at Pretoria in July, 1902. After the death of his father lie handed over his small capital of some £500 towards the upkeep of his mother in comfort,, and came out to New "Zealand. After a time here lie married a widow with two children, and for a while all went well. Then his eyesight failed. No appeal ■ for assistance was made, and for twelve months his wife courageously undertook the upkeep of their home by doing washing. Eventually, but with no claim of any sort from the soldier, the plight of the family came to the knowledge of the branch of the South African War Veterans' Association in the ,town where he was living. Inquiries disclosed that the wife was working 10 to 12 hours a day, and the daughters helped with their email earnings. It was a spotless home, and its inmates were highly spoken of. Arrangements were made by the association for the blind soldier to go to an Auckland institution, where it was found that nerve troubles had weakened the brain, and that Porinia was the only place for treatment. After two years there he died, and his wife was unable to bury him.

These facts were brought up by Mr. Thompson, the Timaru delegate, speaking in support of n remit asking that the Government contribute the same amount of money towards South African Veterans' funeral expenses, in eases where a soldier ran the risk of a pauper's burial,' as they would in tho case of a pensioner of the breat War.

In marrying a widow with two children, concluded Mr. Thompson, "this man saved the State her pension for many years, and must have contributed to revenue materially in the consumption of necessities.