MAIMED SOLDIERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 November 1926, Page 3

MAIMED SOLDIERS

STATE AID IN AUSTRALIA.

The Actin "-Prime Minister of Australia, Dr. Earle Page, referring in Svdnev recently to the assistance be ing granted to ex-soldiers suffering from spinal disabilities or double amputations, said that there was no re cord of any recent official representations having been made to the department or the Government.

“In 1922,” Dr. Page said, “the Australian Soldiers’ Repatriation Act was amended to give special consideration to such eases. An additional schedule was provided for special allowances to the above type of cases whereby they were granted £1 a week attendant’s allowance, in addition to their special rate of pension of £4 per week. Minor amputations and the loss of one eye, etc., were also provided for by a graduated scale of allowances. m addition to their statutorv rates under the War Pensions Act. '1 he special cases referred to receive a pension of £4 per week, and allowance of £1 for an attendant, 18s for his wife, 10s for the first child, 7s 6d tor the second, and 5s for the third and each additional, child. “Where the ex-member is maintained in an establishment the allowances remain the same, save that he receives no attendant’s allowance and his own pension is reduced to £2 2s per week —that is to say, a man with a wife and three children receives £7 0s fid a week if he is living, at home, and, if living in an institution maintained at the public expense, he receives £4 2s 6d a week. Though it has become the fashion in some quarters to depreciate what Australia has done for her wounded soldiers, the fact must be stressed that this country is giving her ex-soldiers the most liberal treatment in the world. Last year war nensions alone amounted to £7,543,000.'”