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Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2479, 4 June 1915, Page 6

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AN OMISSION IN THE LAW. An unforeseen difficulty has been en» countered by the Government regarding soldiers who have arrived in New Zealand from Egypt in weak health. It is the desire of the Government to provide for these men, but the law makes the procedure cumbrous. This difficulty -was explained hy the Defence Minister yesterday. "Our legislation," said Mr. Allen, "provides for pensions or allowances to the dependents of a man who is killed on active service, or who dies from wounds, or who dies from sickness contracted' on active service. In the same -way it provides for pensions for men incapacitated by wounds or sickness suffered while on active service. But our legislation does not provide for the man who has to return home incapacitated from sickness contracted in camp or on ,a transport, and Egypt was a training camp. We drafted regulations to enable these cases to be dealt with, but the Solicitor-Gencral advises us that the regulations were ultra vires. Up till the present we have had to take these cases individually before Cabinet, end this complicates procedure. lam investigating the matter, and I intend to ask Parliament to amend tho legislation to enable us to rnak6 regulations dealing with cases such as I have mentioned. * "Tho question of-pensions generally is one of the most difficult I have yet tried to unravel. There are so many classes of men that may come to claim, must make tho pensions apply to naval as well as military forces now that we have the Philomel, and at once arises the possibility of complications with the Mother Country. But I certainly do think that Australia and New Zealand should work together in regard to these pensions."