WAR PENSIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 144, 19 June 1936, Page 6

WAR PENSIONS

EX-SOLDIERS' NEEDS

REMITS DISCUSSED

One of the most important matters to come before the annual conference of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association—the provision of adequate pensions for war disabilities—was dealt with last night \vhen a number of remits were carried. Altogether fortytwo remits were sent in by branch associations but a number of these were rejected by the committee that considered them. The report of the committee was presented to the conference by Mr. E. F. Willcox (.Christchurch). . The following remits were carried: —"That in medical or surgical cases which have been accepted by the Pensions Department and which are being treated now as out-patients at a central hospital, the procedure be altered in the case of men who live | at a distance from the central hospital to permit of these men being allowed to attend local doctors for their f ollowI up treatment, if available, on the lines set out by the central hospital." "That the time limit on marriage under the war pensions legislation be abolished." (At the present time only those who married within seven years of discharge can get provision for dependants.) "That the Government be urged to restore all pension cuts at the earliest possible moment." "That soldiers who served in the Great War and have resided in New Zealand for fifteen years prior to date of application and have otherwise the necessary qualifications, be eligible for the old age pension." "That the New Zealand Government be urged to make strong representations to the British Government to appoint a representative o£ the British Ministry of Pensions in New Zealand to whojn the Imperial soldiers can make direct representations regarding all pension matters." "That South African veterans be given the same rights of appeal in respect of disability pensions as are available to members of the N.Z.E.F." 'That as many men are now suffer-

ing from disability incurred or originating before the war, but aggravated by war service, they should be entitled to the same privileges with regard to pension and hospital treatment as those whose disability is entirely duo to war service." ''That the New Zealand Hospitals Boards' Association be asked if other hospital boards throughout the Dominion are prepared to extend to returned soldiers the benefit of a hospital agreement similar to that in operation in the Westland district, whereby financial members of the Returned Soldiers' Association, on payment of an annual amount of 30s, are entitled to free hospital treatment for themselves, wives, and children for a period not exceeding thirteen weeks. "That allowances under the War Veterans' Allowances Act should be sufficient to enable the recipient to retain his self-respect, and that the War Veterans' Allowances Act be so amended as to provide at least 33 1-3 per cent, increase in the scale of allow"That suitable institutions should be provided for the treatment of all nervous cases."

"That action be taken in the direction of having the powers vested in the War Pensions Board and the Appeal Board widened so as to enable such boards to deal with applications ior pensions on their merits on the basis lof all disabilities disclosed by the I board's medical officer's report, instead of the board being limited, as at present, to the granting of pensions only on the disabilities claimed for and disclosed by applicants in their applica--1 tion forms."

"That this council wait on the Minister of Pensions and urges that the War Pensions Act be amended to allow the wife of a deceased soldier whose death is not due to war service to receive the same allowance which she may have been entitled to receive during her husband's lifetime."

"That the Government be requested that there shall be granted to the wife of any pensioner a pension equal to one-half of the pension granted to the pensioner, and to each dependent child a pension equal to one-quarter of the pension granted to the father, provided the economic circumstances of the family warrant such pensions." "That all ex-soldiers be granted the old age pension on reaching the age of an, provided they are eligible in all other respects.