UNFAIR TREATMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17712, 25 August 1919, Page 8

UNFAIR TREATMENT

POatTKXN OE EJBTURNED MEN. SEVBBiAIi INSTANCES CITED. Several instances of -what was considered pniair treatment of returned soldiers by yarious braaohoa of tho Government wer« given _ut a meeting of the Wellington iteturned .Soldiers' Association (says tne PostJ. . One member spoko of a. soldier with four years'/ service who applied for tho position of assistant building inspector under the Public Works Department, the vacancy having been announced in tho Gazette. In unswer to his application, ho was uilormod that as he was not a Government employee his namo could not bo considered. "Is not that man, after four years' fighting for tho State, to be considered a Government •servant?" asked tho member who brought the matter forward. Another member spoke of a returned soldier's experience in his endeavour to purchase a houso under the Government scheme. Prior to tho soldier's return his iather had a house in £he market at £750, .but, receiving advice that his son wae returning;, withdrew it, as lie knew his son .would want to purchaso a house. The son applied for Government aid in purchasing tt'O houso, his father reducing the price to i>6oo. In due sourso the soldier was informed that the Government valuation was unfavourable, and that therefore the Land Board could not recommend tho Minister to approve an advance. Dospita tho Government valuation, however, that house was sold within a week on the open market for. £8501

The next speaker referred to the position of men who wished to rejoin the Haihvay Department. Many men, said this speaker, obtained leavo to go to the front, and, on being discharged as fit A upon their return, applied to the Railway Department to be taken back in their old positions. They were surprised to learn, however, that, despite the finding of the Army doctor, they were required to be examined by tho department's doctor. Their surprise at that time was as nothing, though, to their blank astonishment when the department's doctor refused to pass them as iit to take up their old positions. Tho department, the speaker urged, ought to be prepared to take the word of the Army doctor. .The Chairman (Mr J. D. Harper) said that the matter had been before the committee previously, and at that time- they had been informed that the medical examination for tho Railway Department was far nloro strict than that of the Army. A Voice: More strict than that which decided whether men were fit to stand the strain of hard fighting? The first speaker also said that members who were disabled were not taken back by tho department to do light work. Another member said the explanation of the matter was that men not really fit were passed aa fit A and sent to tho front. Those men wero used on service, and then, to do away with the necessity of paying them pensions, they were discharged as fit A.

Tho vice-chairman (Mr A. Curtayne) said that if the matter was to be placed before the department, specific'cases iriust bo cited. Personally, he had not heard of any cases of fit A men being turned down as described,: although he knew of partly disabled men who had been unable to secure work.

A member announced that he was able to supply details of a case, and it was then decided_ to ask the Minister of Railways to receive a deputation on the matter. The Chairman promised that the other matters discussed would be followed up by the executive." Later in the meeting the district organiser, Lieutenant-colonel G. Mitchell, spoke of the unfair position in which certain men who had sold their farms to go to the war were placed. He gave two instances where men had endeavoured to buy back their farms, and had been met with a demand, for greatly enhanced prices—one man had been asked for an extra £700 on a 100-acro farm, whilo in another case the price had been raised from £23 10s per Here to £37. "That is wrong," he said. "It has been said that the value of land !n New Zealand had been increased by 20 per cent, during the war. The soldier has enabled that increase to take placa, so why should he be charged for the value ho himself has created?"