MAORI WAR VETERAN

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10541, 18 March 1920, Page 7

MAORI WAR VETERAN

'•LEFT DERELICT BY UNSYMPA-- ; THETIC GOVERNMENT." ■' Robert G. Hawes, a veteran of tho Maori wars, and now resident at Parramatta, New South Wales, voices * qompJaint againalb hijs "trteatimcnt bjr • i the New Zealand Government in a letter to the Hon. G. Fowlds. In the course of his communication, he ' writes: "I and other young men en- ; listed for the duration of the war, getting my discharge in 1575 in Povertj Bay. On entering the military service , of the colony I was promised a pen- : sion if I served through, the war, and a grant of land, but I got neither, though I carried arms and was at the call of the colony for fifteen years on the poor pay of 5s per day. About six years ago the then Government of New Zealand passed an Act giving all ; veterans with New Zealand war medals : a pension of *23G a year, but I under- ■ stand that there is a olause that all recipients must live in New Zealand. In my case I got lung disease, that I attribute to the hardships and exposure of active service, and in 1909 I • bad to leave New Zealand and live in a warmer and drier climate. On the advice of the medicos of the Auckland hospital I came to New South Wales, where I havo lived since. I passed my early life in the service of the colony, and I take it hard," after fifteen years' . service, to find myself, at eighty-four years of age, unable to support my- , self, and with only the poorhouse in ; prospect. British military pensions are paid irrespective of the residence' of the recipient, but here am I left derelict by an unsympathetic Govern' < ment."