PAY OF SOLDIERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24102, 22 October 1941, Page 8

PAY OF SOLDIERS

SUBSIDY BY LOCAL BODY NO CHANGE IN POLICY By a vote of 8 to 4, the Waitemata Electric-Power Board decided not to rescind a resolution subsidising the pay of an employee of the board engaged on military service, subject to certain provisions.

In moving the rescinding motion, Mr. R. N. White paid tribute to the men overseas, and regretted that his motion should come so soon after an employee of the board, Pilot-Officer Robinson, had been reported missing on air operations. By subsidising the wages of its employees, the board had with the best intentions created a privileged class, Mr. White said, and he pointed out that the Government did not subsidise the salaries of civil servants in the armed forces. Fourteen or fifteen employees of the board were overseas, and of these nine were receiving money from the board. A total of £9 7s 8d was paid to these men every week, and it would be fairer if the money were given to patriotic funds. In opposing the rescinding motion, Mr. W. R. T. Leighton, mover of the original resolution, said that at the outbreak of war the Returned Soldiers' Association was opposed to subsidising wages, but now that the motion had been passed it considered that nothing would be worse than to stop payments. This aspect was also stressed by Mr. J. Guiniven. He said such an action would be strongly resented by those serving overseas, and he thought the board should not be commerciallyminded when men were fighting for their country. Mr. R. G. May said the money the board was paying in subsidies was a paltry sum, as soldiers could not be fully paid for their service, but he thought the board should not pay public money to soldiers. AN INCREASE ADVOCATED WAR WIDOWS' PENSIONS A remit urging an increase of 2s 6d a day in the pay of soldiers serving overseas or in New Zealand was adopted at lf\st night's meeting of the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association for presentation at a forthcoming Dominion conference. Another remit was that all war widows' pensions should be equal, irrespective of the husband's rank. A third was that war pensions should be administered by a war pensions department, and not by the Social Security Department, and that the administration should be decentralised among possibly four district war pension boards, with autonomy in their own districts.