BACKPAY TO RETURNED TROOPERS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10449, 20 September 1901, Page 2

BACKPAY TO RETURNED TROOPERS.

Matter Discussed In the . House. (By Our Parliamentary Special.) / (By Telegraph.) - ' - - WELLINGTON, September 19. Further reference was -made in thi .House yesterday afternoon to the vexed question of the 'delays that have taken place in paying returned troopers from South Africa the money due to- them for their services. Mr Allen/ in questioning the Premier on the subject, said one znaj..who had returned Uelpleßshad .£SO to come to him, and could get nothing, and when passing through Oamaru the other' day five men of the Fourth »nd Fifth Contingents' informed him that they had not yet received the pay due to them. v 'The Premier said no one regretted more than he that there should be any delay at all, but he could not accomplish impossibilities. They had to havo the pay-aheeta of the men made out before- they could pay thorn. ■ The trouble seemed to have arisen through the men not having been paid in South I Africa, and the result was that the De- ! fence Department here had fo make out the accounts for months back. He told the Under-Seeretary for Defence that where- tho men had money owing to them advances were to be made to the full amount, and that they could make out the accounts afterwards, but there was no oase in which. a man had-actu-ally drawn more than was owing to 'him. He had given instructions that the staff should be kept working overtime until tlie accounts had» all been made out.