A BURNING QUESTION

Evening Star, Issue 25634, 7 November 1945, Page 7

A BURNING QUESTION

GRATUITY PAYMENTS GOVERNMENT HESITANCY CRITICISED When and how the Government intended! to allocate the gratuity pay*inents \\'as being constantly asked, by the intended, recipients, and it was high time that there was a clear-cut reply, said the president of the Dunedin Returned Services' Association (Mr H. P. Jefcoate) when pressing at the fortnightly meeting last night of the executive committee for some definite action being taken through the Dominion executive of the association to urge the Government to declare its policy. A motion was adopted to the effect that as £18,000,000 had been included in 'the Government's Estimates for the allocation of the gratuities, Dominion headquarters of the association request an immediate statement regarding the payments. " I have been receiving dozens of inquiries about tho gratuities from returned servicemen concerned about what commitments can be made involving mortgages on properties purchased," said Mr Jefcoate. REHABILITATION AN ISSUE. Mr A. J. H. Jeavous said that as a solicitor he found that the gratuity position was a burning question affecting the future of men in the process of rehabilitating themselves to civilian life. The Government should move now. He could not but suspect that there was a lack of good faith by the Government over the gratuities. Although the people of New Zealand hadi been told there would be no lump sum payment, the entire amount had been budgeted for. The Government was at present- ploughing its way through other important things .and it did not appear that Parliament before the recess would reach any decision over the period of payment. -" The men have been promised the gratuity and the peoplo have been taxed for it, Jbut it is beyond the returned servicement's reach," said Mr D. Forsyth. " The gratuities are linked to" rehabilitation; many of the men want to purchase businesses, but they don't know whether the gratuity will be paid this year or next year or in one lumip sum. Many protestations have been made that the Government wants to speed up the iprocesses of rehabilitation, and one way of speeding them up would be to release the money which the men have earned in gratuities. Parliament will soon be cleaning up its business before the Christmas recess, and there is a chance of no decision being reached. I bump up against the gratuity problem every time I discuss rehabilitation questions with returned men." Mr W. Keith Cameron: We should press for a clarification of the position. What is wanted is a simple statement as to how and when the gratuities will be paid. The President: Can this association press for a lump-sum payment when we placed before the Dominion executive our views on how the gratuity should be allocated? Mr Jeavons said it appeared as if the Government had raised the gratuity question as an expedient when there I was an outcry before the Dominion i conference of the Returned Services' Association was held. The motion was moved by Mr Forsyth, seconded by Mr Cameron, and carried.