"QENEROUS TREATMENT," OR THE NEW MILITARY PENSIONS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1576, 21 October 1912, Page 5

"QENEROUS TREATMENT," OR THE NEW MILITARY PENSIONS.

Sir,—When the Wardist Gorcrument wore in power the honourable gentlemen who comjiosn the present Ministry were very conspicuous ill their advocacv of generous treatment of the. Xe« - Zealand Mnori war veterans. The honourablo gentleman hop at the head of tlw present Government was wticularls; prominent

and persistont in his advocacy of a pension" to nil holders of a Now Zealand war medal, apart from any restrictions whatever, excepting tho one necessary and essential condition. That being tho case, it has been a source of very great surprise and regret—not linmingled with resentment—to many friends of the Government to find on perusing the Military Ponsion Bill now beforo tho Houso that the "generous treatment" so often lauded and advocated in theory is, in fact and practice, so diminutive in quantity as to require a very powerful imaginative microscopp to seo it! It certainly requires a moro fertile imagination than most men possoss to discern any difference—except as to the amount of the dole—between this so-called militarv pension and the old age pension which has long been in operation in this country. Tho Minister, when introducing tho Bill, showed by his apologetic speech and style that he was really moro than half-ashamed of the job, as well ho might be. Ho snid that the intention of the Bill was to prevent our Maori war veterans from becoming paupers! Great Scot! What is a pauper, anyway? I ask because I havo always thought it was a person who was dependent upon public charity to keep body arid soul together! The "generous treatment" proposed by this Bill so far from saving the old warriors from the dreaded "pauper' 3 grave," actually constitutes every recipient of the pension a pauper! All tho usual restrictions ami conditions usual and incidental to a pauper's dole will be found in connection with this so-called military pension. Why cannot the Ministers rise to the occasion 'f Why not let the direction, of their sliding scale be upward and not downward, with a minimum of £36 to a maximum of ,£IOO, rising in the "sliding scale" according to merit and value of services? It is very certain that it is •» provision of this kind of "generous treat ineut" that the country is desirous of seeing given effect to, and is what tho friends of tho Government desire to be identified with. During the discussion on tho second reading of the Bill, the Hon. F. M. B. Fisher seemed to try and cloud the i«!-ue by talking incoherently about "all theso pension schemes." It may be that in tho mind of the Minister—as also perhaps in the mind of thG whole of the Executive— the military pension as regards its prospective . liabilities is on all fours with other pension schemes, such as, soy, the Civil Service superannuation scheme. A moment's thought should show that to be an utter mistake. That, in fact,'there is comparison. For whereas these other pension schemes ore a constantly recurring and a constantly increasing liability, the military pension scheme is a constantly- decreasing one, and that, too, by "leaps and bounds"! so much so, indeed, that in a very few years, at most the liability will have absolutely disappeared! —I am, etc., ■ KOKIRI.