MILITARY PENSIONS.

Waipa Post, Volume IV, Issue 155, 18 October 1912, Page 3

MILITARY PENSIONS.

The following extract from a

debate which arose over the Mi life tary Pensions Bill in the House on Thursday last will be of interest to the many pioneer settlers of this district. In advocat-

ing the just claims for consider-

ation at the hands of the Govern-./-ment of those who paved the way for settlement, the member for Waikato shows a spirit of gratitude which in these clays is too often disregarded. Mr Young (Waikato).—l desire to congratulate the Minister on introducing this Bill which is

one step better than the legisla-

tion of last year. It is regrett--5 able that the last speaker has endeavoured to introduce something in the nature of party strife iflle a discussion of this character.

Mr Brown. —Where is ths party strife ? Mr Young. —When you accused those on this side of the House of being a party who would do nothing of a humanitarian kind for the people. This party is doing now for the old New Zealand war veterans, what has not been done before ; they

are giving them £lO more than •Any previous Government, has done. What has been done in the past ? The only assistance veterans, got in the past was that those entitled to an old-age pension had the privilege of having it called a military pension, but

if they could not qualify for an v old-age pension they were debarred from a military one. There are good points in the Bill, but I should like it to go further, and I hope the Minister of Finance will be able to see his way to enable the Minister to amend the Bill so that every old soldier may get a pension as a recognition of patriotic service irrespective of what he earns or what property he. may possess. The Hon. Mr Fisher;—This Bill includes men not under the Old-

Age Pensions Act. Mr Young.—Yes. But every veteran who has seen military sei'vice, whether he has a war medal or not, or whether he has been under actual fire or not, should be entitled to a pension by the fact that he has rendered service, and has been ready to go out at all hours in defence of the country; they should be entitled to a pension as a right. The Minister said, under this Bill, it

cost the country £25,000, Of which £IO,OOO would be relieved from the old age pensions fund. He also said there was something like one thousand medals waiting to be claimed by veterans, and he wondered whether tte House was prepared to take the risk. I say the House should undoubtedly take the risk, because those old veterans have been the mediums and pioneers enabling us to settle in the country. It is through them that the country has been built up. They have at one and the same time developed the land and defended the country, carrying on their agricultural work under the greatest difficulties and dangers. There .should be no concern about taking the risk of pensions for. the thousand who have not claimed their war medals. The Hon. Mr Fisher.—We are taking the risk'. Mr Young. —So you ought. I know of cases where the wife had to carry her voting children in Maori kits right out into the paddocks owing to the risk there was in leaving them at home lest the rilace should be burnt or plundered. Clearly people who have displayed such: heroism and endured such hardship have every right to be considered. I have a word to say respecting those who have not been under actual fire ; There are many who have rendered great . services to the State when there Was a raid on, displaying great valour. They have had to leave their farms and stock and everything to the risk of destruction by the enemy, and a clever enemy at that. The risk from plunder in such cases was very great. Many have rendered special service, acted as guides and interpreters, which must have been exceedingly valuable to the authorities. All of these men to whom I have referred carried their lives in their hands and I am sorry that many of them who have rendered such services are not entitled to a pension under

this Bill. I hope, therefore, that Government will go carefully ifijftp this matter so as to admit of these people coming within.the operations of this Bill. They are certainly deserving of the New Zealand war medal. There is one very good point in connection with this Bill that I am pleased with, and that is the fact that the applicants are not to be submitted to examination before a Magistrate in Court. That is a splendid proposition, and I trust that.the same will be extended to all applicants for old-age pensions, also to widows who are applying for pensions for their children. I do not think any of these applicants should be -subjected to the indignity of a public examination. Such an examination is not fair because the State owes the money to them not as a charity, but as a right and a duty, and therefore they bculdbe able to go in the same shanner as provided by this Bill mefore a Commissioner to state their position, and when through infirmity, they are not able to go, tb>e Commissioner or his deputy shStild go to them. I must heartily congratulate the Ministry and the Government on this forward

step in which the services of the military pioneers is to be recognised, pioneers who have done so much for this country, so much to build it up, and thus admit of our settling here in peace and security. __^_^__ — ___