MILITARY ALLOTMENTS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2519, 14 July 1915, Page 3

MILITARY ALLOTMENTS

/ WHY THEY ARE STOPPED. . ■; 'A {question relating' to:tlie.'payment of. pensions' or allotments of "missing", men .was raised in the House of .Representatives iyesterday.. . by . Sir, Joseph Ward; who said that icases had been, brought, under:-his notice ;by two parents, whose • sons had been reported ■as "missing" at'the.-front. A short time, .probably a month or six weeka ago, a stoppago was of the 3s. a day allotment, money > made "by the' men. .A man might -turn : up later/ but in the .meantime, his'-parents, were' deprived of. the allotment. .'•

; : 'Th'e. Minister Defence : (the Hon. James Allen) said that he was glad the question -had been 'raised, because ho wanted the public,to,bo made aware of the. position. The allotment money iii certain: cases—those case's ; in, which the .law' allmved- a .'pension : under the 1909 Act-—the payment.:, was. continued for 26 weeks, Spending:..the fixing ;up : ,of the pension;' The;cases which entitled to a; pension i ; uhder : i'the existing ' . Act were' limited. What might have happened .was that ;the.'father' may.' have ,had: allotments made to him, and if the . son . was killed -the ; pension was not payable to the. father under the present /Act. Tho 1909 Pension Act provided for the payment of tho ponsion to. the ; widow of. tho soldier and her children,; arid to the..soldier's motherprovided she was a widow or could prove that) her husband was incapacitated from earning his livelihood. They were continuing the allotment to -the. people entitled to that pension. When the Bill now: bofore the House became law .they would be continue the allotment to those entitled ■ under,, the Bill to a pension. Until that became law he could only comply with: the present Act. In tho meantime be thought the Patriotic Societies .■ might interest themselves in cases riot benefited by the present Act. •: ■" :