War Pensions

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 81, 10 August 1923, Page 5

War Pensions

AUCKLAND DISSATISFACTION. ASSOCIATION IGNOKED. Pev Press Association. Auckland, August 9. Extreme dissatisfaction with the provisions of the War Pensions Amendment Bill was expressed by the executive of the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association and several resolutions, were passed. The first of these resolutions protested against the unseemly haste with which the Bill was rushed through the House without any one being given an opportunity of considering it or of makug any protest or suggestions as to amendments. The executive considered that the economic pension was nothing more nor less than a substitution for the supplementary pension and that unless the granting of it was administered in a much more sympathetic spirit than had been the case with the supplementary pension there would be no gain to the pension holder. The point that the association had so often stressed, namely, the finding of employment for disabled men in Government departments, had not been mentioned in the Bill, and neither was it mentioned in the debates. The executive further expressed regret that the Government had completely ignored the association's repeated requests for an increase in the basic pension. The resolution presumed that the £8 and £6 clothing allowance amounts were payable in respect of the increased wear and tear of an amputee's iClcQiiug caused by Uio wearing of artificial aids, and held that this obviously should be made an increase at the discretion of the board. The final resolution was to the effect that the only redeeming feature of the Bill was the proposed establishment of an appeal board.