WAR GRATUITIES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 48, 25 August 1945, Page 6

WAR GRATUITIES

LEAD BY MEW ZEALAND

New Zealand's war gratuities were more generous than those of any other country in the British Commonwealth, said Mr. P. G. Connolly (Government, Dunecfm West) in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon. As for the period for payment, the U.S.A. recommended three years, but personally he was inclined to a shorter period, say, two years, with the present understanding that the gratuity could be paid immediately if it were for such a purpose as the repayment of a mortgage on a dwelling owned by the serviceman, or in cases where a home could be bought.

Contrasting New Zealand's gratuity of 75s a month for overseas service by all ranks with the proposed payments by the United Kingdom, Mr. Connolly said the Dominion's scale was altogether more generous. Everyone had the same gratuity for service in New Zealand Forces, but the United Kingdom allowed 10s a month for private soldiers and ordinary seamen, and larger payments for higher ranks. The gratuity for an Admiral of the Fleet, field-marshal, or marshal of the R.A.F. was 75s a month, which was what a New Zealand private would be paid. New Zealand paid the women of the Services the same rates as men, but the United Kingdom's war gratuity for the women, including nursing sisters, was two-thirds of the male rates. However, Mr. Connolly added, he hoped the new Labour Government in England would revise the scale.