WAR PENSIONS ACT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue XLIX, 31 December 1915, Page 5

WAR PENSIONS ACT

.STATEMENT BY MR- MASSEY- • ACT WORKING MORE SMOOTHLY'. ADMITTED DEFECTS WILL' BE DEALT WITH BY PARLIAMENT. - Criticism has recently been directed- aft the provisions in. tlie War Pensions Act which' authorise* inquiries by - the-Pen-sions Board regarding the circumstances, of claimants for pensions.' Some remarks on the question. Were made in Auckland*. by the Prime' Minister, the Hon. W- ,FMassey. The "Herald" reports 'Mr Massey as saying:—-The pensions scheme is working muph more smoothly than it did at first. The' people are ; beginning to understand'-the Act "better- than, they did ' I am quite sure that the more they understand the Act tihe better-they _-wfli like it. In many respects it-is\'partiicn.-larly liberal. A point'on- which, .criticism is now directed* is'that "there is no fixed ' ipension for-£h*e -.widow, of a-man who has been killed'. - .-Only the maximum is. fixed' by tne Act,j vThat, I think, is a matte? that will with by Parliament when opportunity offers"; -along with'attjr . other .defects" that, may be the working- 'of the- &ct. -It lias -to-vge "■ remembered that the average of thetpen-i , sions granted -by the board to> widows is higher f(han the maximum, -fixed in ' ." some of -th!e other DominKSn'sr the Act "undoubtedly is, I Yecognfee- tha* ■ ; it is capable ! of improvement,- '"and I have not the) slightest doubt that 1 the, *■ necessary/intprovement will - be" made.<'!>;ltr/ • must always he remembered that the pen* •.- > sion for the "incapacitated 1 man" is l "fixed;" though the degree of incapacity and consequently, the degree' of 'earning powers-is taken into consideration-by- the'board: For instance, >4 man who has-'lost "'some of" the fingers'of one "hand ; 'cannot TSdfcsibly be- given the- same tpensioit a&f- a man who has lost the use of'"both, amis.*'