WAR FUNDS

Southland Times, Issue 19518, 18 May 1922, Page 7

WAR FUNDS

ANNUAL MEETING OF ASSOCIATION. The annual meeting of the Southland War Funds Association was held yesterday, there being an attendance of ten members. The president (Mr H. W. Royds) was in the chair. In his remarks, while moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, Mr Royds said that the figures showed quite a lot of money to have been handled, and anyone taking the trouble to go into the details supplied would have to admit that it had been administered carefully. Mr Royds went on to refer to the attitude of the Pensions Department towards returned soldiers. The Department held that a . ma . n . k a d no claim to a pension unless his disability developed within twelve monthsi after his discharge as fit. This was not only an injustice to the soldier, but it necessitated calls on the Association’s funds that should have been met by the State. It was quite wrong to take the stand that a man was not entitled to draw a pension under the circumstances mentioned. They all knew that when the men came back they were inclined to make the least of their disabilities which were often not discovered by the rather perfunctory medical examination given at discharge. The soldier who developed trouble twelve months or more after discharge should, if it were traceable to his injuries, receive a pension the same as the man whose trouble developed earlier. Mr J. Lowden seconded the motion and asked for particulars regarding the position in connection with blinded soldiers. The secreary (Mr H. J. Farrant) stated that the Advisory Board had not decided to classify war disabilities in visw of the fact that there were many men in a very bad way besides those who wore blind, Mr H. E. Niven stated that the report showed the funds to have been well and economically administered. They could take it from the absence of evidence to the contrary that their policy in the past had met with the approval of the soldiers, the party mostly interested. There was reason for congratulation that the amount written off in connection with advances was not larger, and the performance of the soldiers in refunding such a large amount in view of the hard times was worthy of all commendation. The chairman said that at the beginning the Association had not been able to see as far as it could now ; if it had a good deal of the money paid out in advances it would have been given in grants. He agreed with Mr Niven that the way the men had in the main paid back the money wherever possible redounded to the credit of the returned soldier. The election of officers resulted :—President, Mr H. W. Royds ; vice-president, Mr J. S. A. M’Dougall. Last year’s councillors were re-elected with the exception of Mr D. Cuthbertson, who was elected to represent Waikaka. Before the meeting closed Mr Niven moved a special vote of thanks to the emergency committee, with special reference to Mr M. Thompson who is at present absent from Invercargill. Mr M’Dougall seconded the motion, which was carried. In returning thanks in the absence of the committee chairman, Mr J. Gilkison said that the members of the committee had gone into the job at the start and they intended to see it hrough. He mentioned that a good deal, of this success was due to the secretary, whom he classed as the most efficient war funds secretary in New Zealand.