SOLDIERS’ DEPENDENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16959, 11 September 1915, Page 10

SOLDIERS’ DEPENDENTS.

■Excessive centralisation seems to be responsible for some unnecessary delays in attending to the rightful claims of let limed wounded soldiers and of soldiers’ wives. This at any rate is the* impression conveyed by a long catalogue of grievances given in an Aiickr hand journal. One case, a typical one, is that of an invalided soldier who made three fruitless applications lor his pay* to the Defence Office and who in tho end, having a. wife and cliilct and being penniless, had to seek the help of the local Patriotic Committee. The Defence Department’s explanation v. ns that the man had left a wrong address in 'Wellington. In another ease a soldier in hospital, with a sick wife, being unable to obtain his pay, had to be assisted by the .Patriotic Committee until matters were straightened out. It is complained, also, that when a man is killed the Government’s wise provision that allotments of pay shall continue for twenty-six weeks after death, until a pension can be arranged, is largely nullified by the, attitude of the Defence Department, which considers that it is not the intention, of tho Government to continue pay to those “not in need”; tlio soldiers’ (widow must go before a Justice of tho Peace and swear to her poverty before she can secure the .money that is her tight. Thta extrai separation, allowance, it is declared, is surrounded with unnecessary conditions and regulations. It must in fairness ho. conceded that our Defence Office is the most hard-worked .department in the Dominion at present, and it deserves a good deal of consideration from tho country it is serving .so well. But in tho minor matters of administration there may bo a want of system, and the practice of referring every detail, Jingo or small, to headquarters inevitably leads to exasperating delays and in some cases to actual hardship. Our wounded soldiers and their dependents and tho bereaved women and children whose breadwinners have fallen in battlo arc entitled to the utmost consideration, and the Defence offices in the various districts should be empowered to attend to their legal wants without delay. The returned soldier could be given the money to which he is entitled in Auckland or Christchurch or Invercargill immediately ho gives. tho necessary proof. Butt tho eases of wives aud other relatives in need are more numerous than those of returned soldiers, and with our big casualty lists they are growing rapidly. Tho path of the wife and the mother and the children should bo smoothed and the procedure simplified as far as is possible. Here, it may bo observed, comes in the helping hand of tho Patriotio Committees in tho various centres; they arc able to act on the moment, and they are a staff in time of need and perplexity.