SOLDIERS' HOSTEL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2756, 27 April 1916, Page 3

SOLDIERS' HOSTEL

OPENING CEREMONY NEED FOR FUNDS The; Returned Soldiers' Hostel in Newtown was officially opened by the Prime Minister yesterday afternoon There was -a largo attendance of visitors, chiefly ladies interested in tin institution. 'Among tlio otlier visitors present were the lion. G. \V. Kussol (Minister of Public Health), SurgeonGeneral Henderson, D.M.S., and Majoi Corrigan, Area Officer. The building appoars to ho very well suited for the purposes for which it is now being used. It is airy and .thoroughly well ventilated. A wide balcotij extends along its two fronts, on tc which a French window opens from orery room, and thero is also a flat roof, so that soldiers have amplo opportunities for taking the air. Tho .furnishings, if not luxurious, arc comfortable, History of the Enterprise. At the opening ceremony Mr. IS. 0. liovvoy, chairman of the Hostel Committee, sketched tho history of the institution. Soinotiino in Wovcmbci: last, he said, the Officer Commanding Area Group 5 asked Mrs. Boden to undertake the visiting of sick and wounded soldiers, who wore living in their homes or in boardinghottses. It was found then, that while soldiers in hospital were ' receiving every , attention from visitors, those outsido the hospitals wore not. In the course of her visiting Mrs. Boden found it necessary to call to her aid a committee, and a committee joined with her in the work of visiting soldiers all over Wellington. These ladies soon came Jo the conclusion that a proper homo for' soldiers was ,ani imperative necessity. They made dosperate efforts to raise the necessary monc.\ but found this exceedingly difficult. At last, early iu January, something occurred which impelled the committee to go on with the "hostel scheme at all costs. Mrs. Boden secured tho present building, being backed only by a promise of aid from Mr'. T. M. Wilford, Within a week there were a dozen patients in the institution, and row the regular complement was from 25 to 30. Last week, owing to the holiday rush, there wero some 50 men accommodated there. Unfortunately the Committee were still in need of. funds. They relied .solely on voluntary subscriptions, and the public had been generous. Up till the present between £1300 and £140 C had been collected, hut the committee thought the Government ought to subscribe tho hostel.. ... What tho Covernment Has Done. Mr. Ma'ssey said it afforded him very great pleasure to declare the hostel officially'open. He had had an opportunity of looking over the building, and, while . ho did not profess to bo an expert, he though! it was extremely suitable for the purpose for wliioh it was intended. He congratulated .the committee on the good work they had done and were doing. He knew that Mrs. Boden and Miss Myers had been especially active in thisw ork. The people of Wellington had been most generous in their contributions for, the welfare of soldiers ever since war broke out. Outside of Wellington,; however, institutions such as the Soldiers' Hostel were regarded as purely. Wellington affairs, which the Wellington people should look after. This, he thought, -was rather a narrow view. The hostel was open to all soldiers, wherever they came from, and he thought people in other districts should show some practical interest in it. . Regarding the request for a subsidy, he'expressed the opinion that institutions such as the hostel could well be provided for by private contributions. The Government had no desire to shirk its responsibilities, but it was not possible to provide by legislation for all contingencies. Mr. Massey_ detailed what the Government was .doing for soldiers', making special reference to the military camps, which, lie. said, had been declared to be unexcelled in any part of the world, to the schemes for the settlement of returned soldiers on land, to the working of the Department which helped them to get back into civilian employment after tneir discharge, and to war pensions. The Pensions Act. A great many people, he said, wert under, the'impression that there was no such thing under our War Pensions Act as "pensions by right." This was absolutely a mistake. A returned soldier, totally disabled, received a pension by right, t even if ho had £30,000 a year. If a man wer.e partially incapacitated it was necessary that some competent tribunal should assess the degree,of his'incapacity, in order that the amount of pension could be fixed This was done by the Pensions Board' His own opinion was that it was impossible to do Without a board. The principal objection now raised, and it was an objection which was not raised when the Act was passed, was that the board had power to reduce the pension payable to the widow of a soldier killed if she was-a wealthy woman. There was much to ,be said on both sides of this question. He had already expressed an opinion on tho subject eighteen months ago, and he was rather surprised that expression of opmion had never been quoted in the controversy. The danger of giving full pensions to widows who wore wealthy was that this might necessitate a lower all-round rate, so that people who needed money, most would get les? than they might under a more elastic scheme. The Pensions Actwas to be amended this session. Good a s it was, faults had been discovered by experience.- Inquiries had shown him that with all its faults the New Zealand Pensions Act was tho host Pensions Act in the world,'and it was to'bo kk<!« better.- Kef erring to the separation allowances, he showed that on the present scale a private soldier with a wife and four children received £2 16s. per week and was himself clothed and fed. When the proposals were before Parliament he had never heard anyone say that the payments should be at a. higher rate than this. Very .few people understood what the rate of pay and allowances really was. About Patriotio Funds. Mr. Russell congratulated the committee on their enterprise, and on their very fine institution. He 6aid thaiC as Minister of Public Health, ho was very glad'that it was located near the Wellington Hospital, for soldiers in tho hostel could the more easily receive such treatment as they needed at tlio Hospital. Mr. Russell deprecated strongly the complaints mado by soino about tho treatment of returned soldiors, One would think, he said, that our soldiors had come back to New Zealand determined to extract the last ounce of benefaction on account of the service they had rendered. Tho man who mado complaints such as to give this impression was not honouring the soldiers who, in actual fact, did not ask for anything more than the people of tins country were willing to do for them. He recommended the chairman of the committee to apply for a subsidy to the Patriotic Society, preferably after tho funds for the district of AVellington were federated its lie hoped they soon would he. The patriotic people of Now Zealand had /subscribed a. million of money for the benefit of returned sick and wounded soldiers, and nearly £100,000 of this was now held in Wellington City. Ho thought the hostel was an institution which might well bo helped from the fund. ' If, however, the committee were "absolutely stuck" for money, he thought he could promise the?" aqma mssistunca.