INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 8 April 1919, Page 7

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.

RAILWAY DEPARTMENT'S ALLOW-

ANCES.

(Special to Star.) WELLINGTON, April 7. Though the railway services were maintained without interruption during the influenza epidemic, it is evident from the number of deaths of members of the railway service that the scourge hit that Department severely. The De_ partinent had to be approached by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants to secure assistance for a number of widows of railwaymen who had been left badly off through the death of the breadwinner, and it has responded generously, the Society's journal, in announcing a series of compassionate allowances granted by the Department, remarking that these grants will be ap. previated, not only by the recipients, but by the members of the railway service generally, as indicative of a humane spirit in the administration. Twenty-five grants to widows had been previously announced, and a further number, bringing the total up to 50, represents an expenditure of £5565. These grants range from £50 up to £200, according to the circumstances of the bereaved, and they do not prejudice: the widow's right to superannuation allowances.