RETURNED SOLDIERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18199, 21 March 1921, Page 9

RETURNED SOLDIERS

DISTRICT COMMITTEE MEETING. The quarterly meeting of the Otago District Committee of the Returned Soldiers’ o.' was neld in Friday night. Present —Dr Harrison (chairman), Messrs G. M. Smith, W. H. Wood, A. C. Laing ißalclulha), and J. M. Gillies (Gore). Consideration of a proposal that the Government should be asked to issue free railway passes to limbless men using suburban trains in going to and from work was held over pending the receipt of information from Australia as to the practice there. A letter was received from the Limbless Committee of the Dunedin Association suggesting that a District Limbless Committee should be formed in place of the Dunedin one, and intimating that the present members would be willing to act in that capacity. —lt was agreed that the committee should bo known as the District Limbless Committee. The sub-commitlce was instructed to frame a remit for the conference covering the question of the inclusion of war pensions for income tax purposes. A letter from the Oamarti Returned Soldiers’ Association proposed that Mr F. A. Andrews, late Auckland secretary, should be invited to meet the committee to discuss the immediate organisation of a campaign to secure the revision of the scale of war pensions. It was explained that his expenses would bo paid by the Auckland Association. — It was decided to invi+e Mr Andrews to Dnnedin on the understanding that the Otago Committee was not put to any expense. , LAND SETTLEMENT AFFAIRS The committee approved of the proposal of the District Lands Committee that a conference between the District Sub and Lands Committees should be held, when the date of the visit of the Minister of Lands to Otago was known.; also that the conference should be authorised to send two members to accompany the Minister on his visit to the soldier settlements. It was also decided, op the motion of Mr Laing, to arrange meetings of the men on the various settlements. The District Lands Committee recommended the committee to approve of t'he proposal of the Tapanui Sub-association that the diates for the payment of interest accounts should be altered from January 1 and July 1 to March and September, the former dates being inconvenient for farmer settlers. The Lands Committee recommended that the Land Board should be asked to support the proposal, and that a copy of it should' be sent to headquarters.—The recommendation was adopted. It was resolved to submit to headquarters the following resolution, as amended by the District Lands Committee:—“That it be a recommendation to the Government that, when estates are being surveyed for soldier settlement, the previous owner of the property should be consulted by the Lands Department surveyor.” A letter from the Lands Committee of T.B. men at Cashmere asked district committees to support a proposal that T.B. men should be given preference for every seition opened for soldier settlement where it had been certified that the locality was suitable for T.B. men generally, and the applicants in particular, for the locality.—The Lauds Committee recommended the Otago committee to endorse the proposal, and send, it on to the conference.—The recommendation was approved. The Secretary reported that a deputation had waited on the Land Board with reference + > its action in granting areas of the Mount Pisa estate* which were set aside for returned soldiers, to old settlers Who used to supplement their living hv working on the estate, and now found their holdings too small. The board stated that the granting of these supplementary areas did not materially affect the soldiers’ runs, and that there would not have h?en enough land to make up another run if these n.r-as 1-ad not been pra.n + ed. The secretary add"d that the Cromwell Sub-association r« o-'t- •’nMsfied with the wav in which beard '’"d cleel* wi'b any applications that came h-fore it.—The matter was held over, pen dine a replv from tbe Minister to a protest which was sent to him, RAIL-WAY EMPLOYEES. The committee considered the cases of three returned men who were refused employment py the Railway Department in the Invercargill district.—Correspondence from the Invercargill Association stated that one man, W. G. Murphy, was discharged, after working as a porter for eight weeks, as the result of a medical examination, although his condition at the time was thought good enough to warrant the reduction of his pension. This man had a gunshot wound in the right elbow. S. B. Cavanagh applied for employment as a blacksmith, and made a start, and it was not until the foreman learned that be was a returned soldier that he was medically examined. He was discharged because of a defect in the right eye. W. J. Baker, who applied for employment as a surfaceman at Otautau, was refused because of a defect in the left eye. . The committee passed! the following resolution: “This District Committee respectfully draws the attention of the Minister cf Railways to the fact That there are many returned soldiers suffering_ from slight defects in consequence of their war service, who could satisfactorily fill positions in the Railway Department, but who are at present debarred by the regulations from obtaining employment therein. While recognising that the oepartment must at all times keep in view of its employees and the general public when making appointments to the service, it would point out that there arc many positions in which such returned men could be employed! with every satisfaction to ail concerned, and without menace to themselves it to the public, and which the men, f a 5? of tnem at all events, would be content to nil without hoping for promotion to positions that would bring them into contact with die traffic. With these facts in mind the committee respectfully requests the Minister >o investigate the case of W. G. Murphy v. ho, after filling the position of porter at Invercargill for a period of eight weeks, was discharged from his employment owing, it is understood, to being medically unfit, but whose service showed him to be capable of di«iharging the duties satisfactorily.” It was also decided to lay the cases of Cavanagh and Baker before the Minister by letter. J GENERAL The committee endorsed resolutions passed by the Dunedin Association recommending headquarters to consider making representations to the Government for the temporary suspension of the immigration scheme, in view of the likelihood of unemployment, and for the revaluation of all soldiers’ sections and the readjustment where necessary of rentals to meet falling markets. Mr Gillies was appointed delegate to the Dominion Executive in place of Mr Grtiham, who had resigned, ’ Itv.'asdccided to hold the annual meeting; of the District Council on May 13. ! Dr Harrison having intimated that he I would not seek re-election to the committee owing to the pressure of his practice, a reao. ! lution was carried, on the motion of Mr 1 Gillies, seconded by Mr Laing, expressing ap- 1 preciation of his good services. j