WAR PENSIONS.
CLAIM FOR INCREASE. R.S.A. VIEWS, (Contributed.) No 1. A GLIMPSE AT HISTORY. From time immemorial nations and rulers have always had some inherent sense of equity in maintaining those who had fought their battles. Th© Datin word “pension” signifies a payment, though not necessarily a monetary one; thus wo read in Macaulay’s “Lays of Ancient Rome” that the grateful Remans bestowed upon their brave Horatius “ as much land ns two strong oxen could plough from morn till night.” However, Solon, the great Athenian lawgiver, framed a law which confined monetary payments to persons who were maimed in the war. These had to be maintained at the public charge. As we comprehend a military pension now, it means a payment made as a compensation for wounds received, or disease contracted in the services of one’s country ; it no iongei- purports to be a reward for patriotic services such a 3 those of Macaulay’s he^ro. Jn the early Anglo-Saxon and Norman times the established form of a pension was a grant of land, and historians tell us that the first mention of a monetary grant was to one John Sclatter, who received four marks for the loss of his hand at the Battle of \\ akefield in the fifteenth century. Owing to heavy fighting against the Spaniards, both by sea and by land, the Elizabethan statesmen made the first serioua attempt to provide for England’s maimed. A statute of the time ordained that “ Justices of the Peace had power to charge every parish towards a. weekly relief of maimed soldiers and mariners, so that no parish paid weekly above lOc!, nor urtder 2d; and ©very man hurt, maimed, or grievously sick had to make his claim to the treasurer of the county of his birth.” About this time pensions varied from £lO per annum to any “ who had not borne office” to £2O per annum for an officer. During the closing years of the reign of Charles I. the State realised its obligations to the widows and orphans of slain soldiers by providing them with a pension, totally 7 inadequate for their maintenance, but nevertheless a step in th© right direction. To this end an Act was passed in 1643 empowering a tax to be levied upon all parishes in England for the purpose of raising a. fund for the relief of the widows and fatherless children.
Notwithstanding tho passing of the above Act, the Protectorate was unable to cope with the payment of the maimed of the great Civil War, and pension payments fell into arrears, and ultimately were stooped. In the midst of this confusion Lord Fairfax presented a huge petition from maimed soldiers, widows and orphans, praying for the regular payment of their pensions. This is a. good example of the difference between generous promises made during a war, and the non-fulfilment of those promises after the war is over.
Owing to the failure of the pensions scheme at the end of th© seventeenth ccntiuy, the maimed, widows and orphans became dependent upon charity or parish relief, and the Government in 1682 determined to establish and maintain a hospital for the maimed. This waa the beginning of th© famous Chelsea Hospital, the upkeep of which was mainly' provided by subscriptions and by a deduction made from the pay of each fit soldier—one day’s gross pay annually. Previous to 1754 pensions were not paid until a year’s allowance had become due, and these annual instalments in arrear” were further depleted by the rapacity of pay clerks, who exacted commissions on all pensions. In 1754 William Pitt passed a Bill authorising the pensions of discharged soldiers to be paid in advance at a halfyearly’ period, and that ail contracts should be void by which a pension might be mortgaged. During the Peninsular War the subject of pensions became again one of paramount importance, and in 1806 an Act passed gave to the soldier a claim of right to a pension if he were discharged as disabled and unfit for service; one cannot help wondering that an Act so excellent in principle failed to relieve the soldier of his obligation to contribute to his pension out of his pay. At the close of the Peninsular Wars the following pensions were awarded for specific disabilities by the Chelsea Commissioners:— Per Day. Total Blindness . . . I 3 9d Loss of one eye . . . 9d Amputation of a leg—(a) Below the knee . . 9d (b) Above the knee . Is Od Amputation of an arm—(a) Below elbow joint . 9d (b) Above elbow joint . Is Od (c) At the shoulder joint . Is 6d Evon at the time of th© Crimean War. the pension rates were a reproach to any civilised nation. Thus pensions for wounds and injuries received in action ranged from 8d a day (partial disablement) to 2s a day (total disablement). On October 7, 1854, a patriotic fund was formed to support those who had lost parents, husbands or brothers in the then present war. Subscriptions to this fund stopped about 1866, at which time the fund amounted to £1,467,000; but owing to maladministration this fund gradually frittered away. The tardiness with which th© State recognised its obligations to widows and children (on a sound basis) is a matter of national reproach. It was not till 1863 that steps were taken to rectify this unpardonable oversight, and not until 1881 that the pensions were granted directly by the State to widows and orphans. The payments made at this time were 5s a week for widows, 7s a week for a widow and one child, and Is 6d a week for each additional enua. With the advent of the South African War the State developed a more altruistic conception of its duty, as evidenced in the increased rates allotted. Thus, for partial disablement a private could obtain up to 2s a day, and for total disablement 2s fid a day. During this war two important additions were made:— (1) Identical pensions were granted to men discharged by reason of disease incurred during the war; and (2> Pensions were granted to dependents—other than widows and children—of those soldiers who, through war service, succumbed within twelve months of their discharge. Pensions for widows and children were also increased ; widows received from 5s to 11s weekly, according to rank of husband, and Is 6d was granted to each chiLd. Nowadays the pension is looked upon as a right and not as an act of charity. From the foregoing it can be seen how the State has gradually realised its responsibility towards the fallen and the disabled ; at no time has this responsibility been fully’ shouldered. The great question for the people of New Zealand at the present time is: Have they adequately discharged the debt they owe to their men who preserved their rights and liberties? (To bo continued.)
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Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Issue 16537, 22 September 1921, Page 6
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1,138WAR PENSIONS. Star (Christchurch), Issue 16537, 22 September 1921, Page 6
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