WAR SERVICE PENSIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19417, 27 August 1926, Page 12

WAR SERVICE PENSIONS

SOUTH AFRICAN VETERANS. REPORTED INCREASE DENIED. MORE REQUESTS SUBMITTED. MINISTER NOT FAVOURABLE. [BY TELEGRAPH.— PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, Thursday. Requests made to the Minister of Pensions this morning by representatives of the South African War Veterans' Association for further assistance for men who served in the South African campaign met with a very definite and not very favourable reply. The deputation asked that the Government should reduce the pension age from 65 to 60 in the case of all South African veterans, that all South African veterans, irrespective of age if incapacitated by reason of war service, should receive a pension, and that men who served in South Africa, but who were not attested in New Zealand should also receive pension assistance. It was suggested that a reciprocal arrangement might be made with the Imperial Government in regard to the latter. In replying to the deputation, tho Minister of Pensions, Hon. G. J. Anderson, gave an emphatic denial to statements that he had agreed to increase the South African War pension from £l3 to £26 a year. All that had been done so far was to have the matter referred to a j committee of Cabinet, which had not yet | made a final decision. The matter would not bo attended to this session. A Principle Involved. "It is not only yourselves that I havo to consider in this matter of pensions," said Mr. Anderson. "I have to consider all the Great War men, who will ventually come along as you are doing and demand a pension as a right. I tell you frankly I will not recommend Cabinet to give you a pension as a right as the Maori War veterans have claimed, because if you have come back to New Zealand and succeeded in making a very good nest egg you, I think, have had the advantage of the laws which you protected on the battlefield. Having had the protection of these laws in laying aside your nice little nest egg you have no right to come along to the country and say, *We want special consideration for something we did on the battlefield. ' If you have not succeeded in laying a nest egg I admit you should heve your Soutn African ( pension. "In regard to reducing the pension age to 60, I am not going to recommend anything of the sort to Cabinet, and so far as incapacity is concerned it will have to be treated on the same lines as incapacity for the whole of the community, If all goas well I hope during the recess to bring before my colleagues a scheme which I have under consideration." Mr. Anderson promised to discuss tho question of reciprocity with the Old Country with the Prime Minister. If they were asking him to give men who did not attest in New Zealand an extra £l3 he would tell them frankly he would not recommend Cabinet to do so, because each part of the Empiro must look after its -own soldiers. By going out of New Zealand to enlist New Zealanders became Imperial soldiers. The Maori War Pension. The Minister of Finance, Hon. W Downie Stewart, said he had always realised that the South African veterans had justice on their side in saying they had not got as liberal a deal as the meu of the Great War, but it was very difficult to open the subject now after all the time that had elapsed. Mr. Anderson was between two. fires. If the South African veterans said they should have a pension as a right he could not seo what answer he could give to the men of the Great War. He would like to hear how they proposed to face the problem. It might not be very expensive to meet the case of the South African men, but a large sum would be in--volved if it was applied to an army of 100,000. It would be an enormous bur den on the taxpayers of the country. "I frankly admit," said Mr. Anderson, "that a mistake'was made in giving a pension as of right to the Maori War veterans, but I am not going to perpetuate that erior. The mistake was that it was given to everyone irrespective of his means provided he could prove that he was under fire." Mr. Downie Stewart: There,are South African veterans' who a:re wealthy men. Are they to get a pension as a right ? Mr. Anderson: That's what they are asking. So far as I am concerned I am not going to recommend my colleagues to give a wealthy man a pension as a right. It is unsound in principle.