ABUSE OF A PRIVILEGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17531, 24 January 1919, Page 8

ABUSE OF A PRIVILEGE

SOLDIERS' TICKETS FOR FREE TRAYEL. *■« . \ ' „. Base Records' Office, Wellington, supplies the following information:— The Defence Department has had to take steps to protect the returned soldiers' privilege of four weeks' free travelling by insisting that the precautions against its use by those not entitled to it shall be strictly observed. As a result several soldiers who were travelling- without their certificates of aischarge are held up in various parts of New Zealand. The ticket is a valuable privilege but has been abused somewhat the precautions laid down in the Returned Soldiers' Handbook, and repeated on the warrant for the ticket, and again on the ticket itself, are being disregarded, by* EQtne of the men. When the privilege ■was first introduced it >was available only during the period of leave prior to discharge,, so that the soldier was in uniform when travelling, and there was little chance ot the ticket "being used by unauthorised persons. Isow the privilege is available for any £& days period within three months of the soldier's return, thus enabling the men to spend some time at their homes before commencing to travel. The extension of the period carries it beyond the date of discharge, so that a soldier can travel in mufti. Under these circumstances, as experience of actual cases of impersonation has shown the Defence Department finds it necessart to strictly enforce the conditions printed on the ticket—that the returned soldier's certificato of discharge must be exhibited to the guard or the ticket collector when travelling, or, if the soldier has not been discharged., his leave wan-ant must bo carried and shown. Officers who receive no certificate of discharge are required to produce their notice of having been struck off the .strength of the Expeditionary Force. Base Records posts a soldier's disoharge to the address ho has notified' before the actual aato of discharge, so as to avoid any difficulty in using the rail privilege, but some mon are evidently travelling while their discharges are awaiting them at home, and are making no arrangements to have the«e •necessary documents forwarded on. To trv to overcome this difficulty Base Records wiU in future post discharges not less than 10 aays prior to the date of discharge As a result of representations by the Defence Department, arrangements have been made for the return of impounded tickets on the production of a certificate from the Director of Base Records that the discharge has been posted to the soldier's home address. Arrangements have also been made to refund the fare which may have beon charged the soldier at the time his ticket was impounded. All the specified conditions will, however, be. strictly enforced in the nrttrre.