The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1915. WAR PENSIONS ACT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14773, 29 November 1915, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1915. WAR PENSIONS ACT.

One result of Mr Robert Fletcher's suggestion that a special session of Parliament should bo held to amend the YY ar Pensions Act is tho recital of a fresh crop of instances in which tho Art apjrears to have afforded soldiers and their dependents much less generous assistance than the Legislature intended and the public expected. Several flagrant cases already have found their way into the newspapers, but many more are in circulation without printed publicity. The story is told of a widowed mother of over sixty years of ago who lost her only eon at Gallipoli as far back ns August and who is now debarred from benefiting under Hie Act because .she was not actually depeudent upon her boy during the year preceding the date upon which lie joined the Expeditionary Force. In another case the soldier son of a small •spttlor in the back blocks, who accepted hit discharge under the impression that he had sufficiently recovered from the illness that brought him home to shift for himself, has been informed by the authorities that lie can lie given no assistance in the relapse he has suffered. If a tenth of the tales that are being told of similar eases arc true, it is of the utmost importance that the pension law should be revised; but probably the Minister of Defence could do all that is icoessary in the meantime by exercising the powers bestowed upon him by the Act without putting the country to the considerable cost of a social session of Parliament and inviting a good deal of bickering and wrangling on the floor of tha House.