PARLIAMENT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 7, 3 October 1917, Page 6

PARLIAMENT

WAR PENSIONS

THE SPECIAL ALLOWANCES CLAUSE PROCEEDINGS IN COMMITTEE. The House of Representatives met at 2.30 p.m. Amendments to the War Pensions Amendment Bill were introduced by Gov-ernor-General's Message, and the House went into Committee on the Bill. Mr. J. Payne said that clause i, providing for the payment at tho discretion of the board of an additional pension not decoding ,£1 a week, in order to allow a widow to be maintained in the same degree of comfort as before the breadwinner, was killed, was not now mandatory, and he urged that it be made mandatory. He admitted that some discretion would have to be allowed to the board as to the amount to be paid in different cases. Sir James Allen said that it would be usless to amend tlie clause as suggested. It would not have tlie effect honourable members desired. He considered that the provision for extra pension made in this clause was a reasonable one, beyond which'tho Government could not see its wav to go. He did not say that it would meet tho case of every man who before the war had been in receipt of a nigli salary, but it was a reasonable concession. He could not recommend the government to increase the. amount to £.1. Mr. Wilford spoke of the schedule of percentages of disability, pointing out inequalities. He said that loss of a leg was considered to be 75 per cent, of total disablement, and men woultt be entitled to pensions at the rate of la per cent, ol the maximum rate. But it would happen that the loss of a leg would be a very small disability to some men. Los,of two fin»ers was accounted as equivalent io % per cent, disability. But for such people as Hansard reporters, P«ssm e n or musicians, who relied 7° n their finsera to earn their living, the 1«, nf two finders would be such a serious matter Ct their case would not'be coveredby an allowance at the rate of 2o V£-$. Lee "iiHhat. there difficulties about a ule as well os certain great n<hnritw». •Vhe war to provide for exceptional cases ™h™those mentioned by the member for' Vntt waff in the general clauses in th {h lX C J Paw nrrert that the maximum'allowance should be increased to £. a week. Special Cases. Several members followed up the question, urging the Minister to amend the 6chedulo in order to nrovide for such cases as those referred to. m which partial disablement would totally disqualify a man from carrying on his ordinary occupation. Sir .Tames Allen said Hint he had put the schedule into the Bill because of the general demand for it made by the House and by people outside of it. He had always held tlie opinion that 'the board could do belter work without a schedule, and if elasticity was required the remedy was to cut out the schedule. The way to get over the difficulty vould not be by increasing tho allowance under clause i, because this .allowance must be dependent, in terms of tho clause, on a man's pre-war earnings. An increaso to £2 a week would not heln the man who had been in receipt.of .£3 a week before the war. He would suggest that it would be of more value to tfie man, and to the community, not to give him extra money, but to train him for another occupation if lie could not follow' his former occupation. For this purpose the Minister' in charge of the Returned Soldiers' Information Department was provided with funds. Mr. G. J. Anderson pointed out the danger of making concessions to highlypaid men. Long after tho war, ho said, there might be jealousy and heart-biiTn-inge because one-family whose head had been to the war was receiving Jii or £5 a week from. the State while another family, .through no fault on the part of anybody, was receiving only J!2 or £3 a week. Parliament should be very careful to make the pensions such that .they would not bo tampered with by any .later Parliament. Ho mentioned, aiso, the case of printers, saying that a printer would be crippled by loss of either thumb, and some special provision should be made for such cases. Sir James Allen said he would submit to Cabinet a clause giving the board power -to deal with cases of special injury. But ho would ask the House to remember that it was not desirable to put anything in tho Bill which would discourago a man from learning another occupation.

The Pre-War Standard. Mr. H. Poland, referring to the prewar standard and the comfort test, said that this would operate to the disadvantage of lads who went to the war early. He cited the case of a youth not yet twenty years of age, who had been nearly three years at the war. If he had stayed here instead of voluntering, he would have been earning £3 a week, whereas he was only receiving ,£1 a week when he left. His own opinion was that the pension for the disabled man should be increased. • The Minister said that the amendment he would propose would b6 that the board should not have power to award less than the schedule rates, and should have power to give more than the schedule rates in Epecial cases. Dγ Newman said that if any member of tlie House had power to move to increase the extra allowance to .£2 a week the House would carry it by a large majority. ■ It was all moonshine to say that the country could not afford to do the decent thing. The coiintry had made a lot of money, and could /well afford the expenditure.

To Test the House.Mr Wilford moved to delete from the clause the words "One pound, and by his speech indicated .that the purpose of the amendment was to let the Government know the opinion of the House that the maximum allowance should lie increased to .£2 a week. . Mr A H. Hindmarsh eaid that he did nof 'see why men getting £6 a week should get any hotter treatment than the man getting Xo a week. It was a .most wdemocratic proposal, and he was surprised to see tho Liberal members supporting it. ifte fact was that the men who had acted as spokesmen for the Second Division League were men who had got a good start in I*, and they had put in:a • word for themselves. He would prefer to see a good pension given without any of these aistinctions-socinl distinctions. u they really were. He claimed to speak for the £3 a week and ja 15s, a treek men, and he demanded fair treatmTt^St^thatlhecW? id i,, fact mate distinctions between the rich man and the poor man Tina had ton done deliberately, but the amount of distinction was limited to a week. The effect of the propoasl of the mentor i tt,,H- would be to accentuate the Tt could not help the poor marf The poor man could not under it receive a halfpenny more.

Amendment Rejected

After further, discussion Mr. Wilford's amendment was rejected by 33 .otft, to 30 and clause 4 was adopted. The division list on Mr., Wilford'e amendment was as follows:— For Amendment (30).

Anstoy Brown Buddo Craigie Dickie EU Field, T. A. H. Fletcher Forbes Glover Hindmareli Hornsby leitt ■ Lee M'Coniba

Newman, A. K. Ngata Parr Payne ■ Poland Poole Smith, E. W. - Statham Sylces Talbot Thacke-r Veitch * Walker Wilford .Witty

Against Amendment (33). Allen Mander Andorson Mnssey Bollard - Myers Dickson, J. 11. j Newman, E. Dickson, J. S. Nosworthy Field, W. H. Okey Eraser Pearce Guthrie Pomare Hanan Rhodes, E. H. Harris Ithodes, T. W. Henare Russell Herdnian Smith, G. H. ■ Herries ' Ward Hudson "Wilkinson Hunter Wright Jennings Young Mac Donald On clause 8, which provides that temporary pensions may be granted where disablement has not reached its final condition, and that permanent pensions we not to be reduced subsequently on review, Mr. Poland suggested that tho pensions should lie required to be fixed within twelve months. The noil should not be left in uncertainty for prolonged, periods. Pre-Enlistment Disabilities. Several members urged that v<lien a soldier had been passed as fit and ad-r mitted to }he Forces, the question of his ipre-enlishm :it health should not be reviewed subsequently.! The Defence Department should take full responsibility, and should not .attempt to alt*'bite disease or disablement to something that had happened prior to enlistment. . The House accepted the Minister's amendments to'clause 10, which .provides for an additional pension to n soldier's widow when necessary to enable tier to maintain herself and her children in accordance with the standard of ■'•ojnfort to which they were accustomed before the war. The maximum amount the extra-pension was increased by the llinister from 10s. to 15s. weekly, and the maximum total amount payable to a widow and children under the section twis increased from £3 to £i weekly. .Replying to appeals on behalf of New Zealanders who had enlisted in Britain and elsewhere, the Minister said that the Bill covered bona-fide. residents cf New Zealand and their dependants. It did not apply to men who had left New Zealand in order to join other forces when they could have joined the NewZealand forces if they had waited. . • The Minister proposed, and the Hon6e accepted, an amendment to'clause 15 extending the grounds on which, a claim for a pension may be based. His amendment made the clause mandatory, insisting upon the board granting a pension or allowance to a man or to his dependants, in. the event of liis death or disablement from any cause except that of the soldier's own misconduct after he became a member of the forces. The Minister promised to have Inquiries made regarding certain special cases submitted by members.

Constitution of the Board. There iras some general discussion about the constitution of the board, when Mr. Hindinarsh and -Dr. Tiiacker brought down the particulars. Mr. Hindmarsh said things about Mr. Cooper, and Dr. Thacker was not euro 'about Dr. Pollen. Mr. Wilford moved that there should be on the board two returned soldier 3, one married man and one single man. The Prime Minister said that the Government would imt one returned soldier oil the board, but thought that Mr. Wilford's niggesbon was going too far. Mr. Wilford accepted this assurance and did not press his amendment. Progress was reported at 1 a.m., when all the clauses of the Bill had been dealt with; Tho schedules had not been considered. The House rose at 1.1 a.m.