NO NEED FOR PENSIONS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2476, 1 June 1915, Page 7

NO NEED FOR PENSIONS

A PATRIOTIC VETERAN

Tho Defence Minister recently received a letter from a well-to-do military pensioner, who served in the Maori War, covering a cheque for the full amount of the pension moneys this gentleman had received, and renouncing all claims to pensions in the future.

Tho text of the letter received by the Minister was as follows:—"As a holder of the New Zealand War Medal, I applied for and obtained the pension provided under the Pensions Act, 1913. I made this application with the idea of showing my appreciation of the spirit which prompted the promoter of the Bill, and not through actual need of the pension, but the changed conditions existing in the Dominion at present liavo led me to think that our Dominion has greater need of tho £36 a. year than I nave. Will you kindly instruct the proper authority to cancel my claim to this pension and place tho enclosed cheque for £42 to any account you may deem desirable? This is the actual amount I have drawn."

The Minister replied as follows:—"I am very grateful to you for your generosity both in returning tho cheque and cancelling tho pension, and if you approve I shall be pleased to place the £42 to the credit of the fund for the crmfnrt of the sick and woiinded in Egypt, Malta, and elsewhere. I will ask the Pensions Department whether they can devote the amount that you aro entitled to each year to the fund to assist tho sick and wounded soldiers, either at tho present time or upon their return tn Now Zealand."