WAR RELIEF

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11168, 25 March 1922, Page 4

WAR RELIEF

ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE LARGE NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS RECEIVED. COLONEL POW ELECTED MEMBER A meeting of the executive committee of the Wellington War Relief Association was held yesterday afternoon, the chairman (Mr L. O. H. Tripp) presiding. The other members present were:—Messrs C. M. Luke, A. Mclntosh, William Ferguson and Clement Watson.

Colonel Paw (organising secretary of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association, and a member of the War Funds Council) was elected a member of the executive, an place of Mr R. J. F. Aldrich, resigned} and was also appointed to the emergency and applications committee.

25 PER CENT. MORE APPLICATIONS.

The applications committee reported that since the last meeting of the executive it had received 323 a/pplioa'tious, and had considered 263 of them —the remainder being still under consideration. The number of debits made to Fund A (disabled _ soldiers, or those who suffer a relapse in health proved to be attributable to -war service), Fund B (men suffeifng a more or less indeterminate degree of war disability, but discharged fit, after serving abroad for a period or three years or more ), and Fund C (applications from men who (served with units of the Allied forces other than the N.Z.E.F.; or !by discharged members of the N.Z.E.F. with short foreign service, suffering “war distress” traceable more to their age or to domestic and economic factors than to military service) were:—76 Fund A, 12 Fund B, and 4B Fund C. Included! in the charges against Fund C were 32 awards to men who did not serve with the N.Z.E.F. ’

The number of applications received during the term under review, cammjemted the committee, iwbs 26 per cent, greater than for the corresponding period last year, whilst all' claims tended to become more difficult as the lapse of time increased 1 since the Armistice. With the exception that a larger number of applications had been submitted by our 'disabled soldiers, and by ex-imperial and Australian soldiers, than had' previously been the case, there had been alteration either in general activities or in -the nature of the applications presented. Twenty-seven granite wens awarded disabled soldiers, in supplementation of their war pensions, pending their obtaining employment • or in part restoration of temporarily-reduced civil earnings; or in augmentation of their incomes, pending receipt of the Repatriation Department’s subsidy. A nursing sister was given asostance' to enable her to complete a coarse of study at the Karitane Hospital, and payments of sundry descriptions were made to, a,nd_ on (behalf of, the dependents of disabled men. A .number of applications had been ■ribndttea by those suffering temporary complete low of income as the result of a breakdown in health directly traceable to war service. These had been helped as required) by the varymg mrcumstenoes of their claims j tools trade were provided for other apphoanta, and assistance given in direptaona too numerous to be detailed ' w4th !? , the Rmits of the, report. The month had been as busy a period as had been previously experienced by the committee.

A DISTRESSING CASE. Mr Mclntosh said that one of the cases dealt with, that of an ex-service immigrant from the Old Country, was very distressing. He had a wife and four children, and • was a painter by trade; but he had been knocked about at the front, his health had been broken down, and the medical report was that he must not go on with his trade. Unfortunately, his pension, which would have brought him in £3 I7s 6d a week, had been stopped, and all that he had was a £6O to £7O equity in a house he had bought. The committee had got him into the Wellington Hospital, and had made .certain temporary provision for him, which the War Funds Council had approved, but it was felt that the British authorities should be approached to grant the man his pension again; on the association paying off with interest the amount he had received as commutation. The faot of the matter was that the man was totally unfit to be sent overseas. He bad been sent out by the filing’s Fund Committee, and it was felt that that committee and the Overseas Settlement Committee were not strict enough as to the fitness of the men sent out. All these committees, which acted on their own, had to do, was to get a doctor’s certificate that the men had not got any malignant disease.

On the motion of Mr 0. M. Luke, it was decided that the secretary should write the High Commissioner calling his attention to the matter, and asking him to submit the letter to the Ring’s Fund and Overseas Settlement Committees. It was resolved to request the High Commissioner also to assist the association in getting the man’s pension restored. "Mr Mclntosh said that the Imperial authorities seemed to be too careless in commuting the pensions of men who came out here. It looked almost ae if they wanted to get rid of them.

POSITION OF FINANCgp. The finance committee reported that it tad dealt with eight oases, each involving a sum in excess of £6O. The total involved was .£IOOO. Of this, £IOO was approved as a business loan, and £l6O as an advance under second mortgage for the acquisition of a dwellinghouse. The remaining £750 was represented by amounts previously advanced to six applioante (dwellinghouses £IOO, soldier-settlera £650). In respect to these, the committee approved the reduction of monthly instalments due on the loan of £100; took appropriate action in regard to the difficulty experienced in recovering two loans, each of £IOO advanced to soldier dairy farmers; and suspended, for six months, repayments due by their respective dairy factories of instalments of loanß totalling £450 advanced to four soldier-settlers. The financial statement showed that the income for the month of February totalled £516 10s 2d, and the expenditure £IO3O 6s Id; the excess of expenditure over income being £522 16s lid. As at February 23th the credit balances at the hank, however, totalled £3055 18s ,Jod; and the investments amounted to £41,522 18s lOd, making the total available fnnds £45,408 17s Sd.

Acoounts to the amount of £2Ol 8s 5d were passed for payment.