FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16870, 7 June 1918, Page 6

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.

THE SECOND DIVISION.

WITHDRAWAL FROM BOARD.

fllY TKr.KGKATH.- -PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

WELLINGTON'. Thursday. A nEE'rixi; of the national executive < f tile Second Division League discussed the policy of the Soldiers' Financial Assistance Board. It was decided to withdraw the league's 1 epresentative on the board. The masons ic„- this step are set f"tth in a manifesto, the salient points of which arc summarised below :—

ft has been dearly laid down by the Government that in making grants the wife of a soldier shall not be penalised because of persona! earnings from employment. ' he. highest employment of womanhood and the employment of the greatest value to the nation is motherhood, and the proper upbringing of the children who arcto make future citizens, and complete maternal control is more than ever necessary, in view of the absence of the father. Ihe wife of a soldier being a mother of young children cannot take employment, and. at the same time, attend her home properly and taie lor the upbrini'iii" of her children. °

Ihe National Government laid it down as the policy of (lie Financial Assistance Board that the ''wife only" of a soldier whose pre-enb.-tment earnings were £150 per annum, or under, should receive sue h grant as would give her a. 'let minimum income of £90 per annum clear of recurring obligations. In a case recently investigated the league showed that the wife of a reservist with one child— pro-enlistment income £109 per annum—has been made a grant, leaving her and her child jointly a total sum of £94 only per annum, thus ' depriving her almost entirely of the value of her child's separation allowance. An official attempt has been made to justify this action by comparing the pre-fulist-went earnings of the husband, this aj. pea ring to indicate that the hoard's function is to keep the wives and children of soldiers on the lowest possible scale compatible with their pre-euhstment position. instead of improving their condition reasonably as p. ' reward for the sacrifices demanded of them b" the State. This appears dearie to indicate that the policy as laid down by the National Government does not. recognise the sat red calling of motherhood as an employment- worthy of the greatest encouragement, and that the children separation allowances recently increased by the I-overnnient are. to be nullified. The minimum no; income of £90 for "wile only' is not a sufficient income. having regard to the high cost of h ,'ing.