"A LINE MUST BE DRAWN."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20420, 23 November 1929, Page 16

"A LINE MUST BE DRAWN."

Sir, —I have waited in the expectation that somo other and more authoritative pen than mine would have replied to Mr. W. K. Howitt's letter in the above matter. It would seem to mo that Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., in his remarks, might have "drawn the fire" of the Returned Soldiers' Association when he stated "that all pensions—and presumably military pensions—are an expression of civic goodwill toward the unfortunate, involving the principle of a levy on the taxpayer to bo paid to thoso of good character.' 1 Now, I happen to bo a pensioner, who, intor alia, does "not involve tho principle of a levy on tho taxpayer"—of this Dominion; thus perhaps I may be forgiven if I venture to express tho opinion that tho learned magistrate appears to have a complete misconception as to what a military disability pension, at least, really is. As I understand it, it is merely a form of indemnity paid to a person—in this case a soldier—who has been incapacitated in tho course of his employment, which I understand and know is tho basis of all the Workmen's Compensation Acts in the Empire. Provided a person's injury is sustained in the normal course of his employment—and is not caused or aggravated by his own negligence or otherwise while so employed—his employer is liable to compensate him for injury so sustained, irrespective of his prior or past irregular conduct. Now, I plead ignorance of tho particular case which drew this remark, beyond that the applicant—one might almost theso days say suppliant—was separated from his wife, and it does not appear to me to alter tho general principle, which is "that a State which , does not inquire into the private moral existence of thoso offering themselves to its service—prior to that service—has no authority to question their private moral existence after it has availed itself of such service. If it does, one would be led to believe that Kipling's "And it's Tommy this and Tommy that" and 'Kick him out, the brute'; but it's 'Tommy you're a hero* when the guns begin to shoot" is still woefully true. This is a point that possibly the "levied taxpayer'- has not had put to him. H. L. E. Richards, R.W.F* and R.A.F*~