FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVII, Issue 16477, 23 February 1918, Page 6

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.

The deputation which waited ou Sir Jaioies Allen in "Wellington to complain against the administration of the Financial Assistance Board placed before particulars of a dozen cases, in which it was urged that the Board had treated soldiers'' dependents with improper niggardliness. It is plain that special cases cannot properly be discussed until all' their circumstances ha\ r e been 'inquired into. The Financial Board has dealt to date with 7486. amplications for assistance, and if it could be shown that m a dozen cases in one military district it has made tT>? record would not necessarily be a bad one. Some points of police, however, which been brouffht forward 'should be settled in a definite manner. It is plain that in some crises the Board has reduced or abolished special grants, on the that, the separation allowances havi" - been increased last session, they are not now needed. The separation allowances were only raised, however, because an increase in them was needed. The excuse for not raising them still hi.q-her was that the Assistance Board would make up deficiencies. If their increase means that other given before to soldiers having special obligations, js to be proportionately reduced or altogether ended, [ it is plain that in a large number

of cases the more reasonable standard scale of allowances approved last year by Parliament will nave no benefit at all. It was certainly not the idea of Parliamient that the improved scale should give relief to soniS men and be to others valueless, while the raising- by £1 a week of the amount which may be given as financial assistance,must appear a mockery .]$ >. in practice this relief is being cut down. Possibly the Board has found that in some;. cases the relief afforded "by ?t,. added to the increased separation! rates, would make the soldier better off ' than he was before the! war, but that must have ihan.- • pened already, in a proportion pjß cases, apart from the provision.' for special assistance, and aparii '.•*- even from the large number oS men: who have increased their pre-war earnings by becoming 'officers. We do not see why th» ' Department should be at special! pains to avoid this consequence-ipf a single order of cases. A man's war services mav be worth mora than those which he 'nerfonned Nya civil capacity, and the righli j rule would appear to be to treat' all soldiers in the same way for • I the same services. The whole' | subject of financial assistance I must be strewn with difficulties, but Sir James Allen promised in! the House last session . that the Board's function of relief would be_ interpreted by it in a generous spirit, and, in answer to theWellington deputation, withoati expressing any judgment on decisions of the"Board, he repeated that theTe anust be .liberal treat- . ment. With every month's . rei port of the Finance Minister mora' ' cheerful than the last the Assistance- Board, if it errs at all, can! afford to err on the generous side, and doubts which have been' sus-o-ested by its administration: should be cleared ud by the interview with the Minister.