WAR GRATUITY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2035, 30 September 1919, Page 3

WAR GRATUITY.

PAYMENTS COMMENCE' THIS \ WEEK.

THROUGH POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK.

A Gazette Extraordinary Ims been issued fixing the gratuity to be paid to officers and men of the Expeditionary Force who proceeded overseas, at Is (id per day. Payments will commence through the Post Office Savings Bank in accordance with the folloAving provisions:— Application form (E.F. Pay Form 192) for gratuity will be distributed to all post offices throughout New Zealand. These forms must be completed where necessary, and forwarded to the Officer in Charge of War Expenses, “Wellington. In the case of deceased members, the applieations should be made by their legal representatives.

"When the form is received in the Pay Office it will be numbered and dealt with strictly in order of receipt. OAving to the very large number of eases, it Avill be some time before they can all be investigated, so that applicants must not expect payment at once. The application Avill be examined by the Pay Office and the gratuity calculated. The amount due Avill be remitted to the Postal Department for either (a.) Depositing to the credit of the applicant’s present account in the . Post Office Savings

Bank;or (b.) Depositing to the credit of a Post Office Sayings Bank account Avhich Avill be specially opened if the applicant has no other bank account; or (c.) Lodgment at any bank or private savings bank iu Ncav Zealand at Avbich the applicant has a current account as shown in (he application; or (d.) Payment to or for the person entitled under paragraph 11 hereof.

In nu ease will the amount be paid direct to the member by the Pay Office.

Already many thousands of applications for the gratuity have been received.

The tolar amount be absorbed in the payment of the gratuity is estimated at £5,552,000. IN RESPECT OF DECEASED SOLDIERS.

The Minister of Defence has received many inquiries regarding the payment of the gratuity in respect of deceased soldiers. .For general information, therefore, it is stated (hat where a soldier has died while a member of the Few Zealand Expeditionary Force, or after being honourably discharged from the New Zealand - Expeditionary Force, payment of the gratuity is limited to jiis widow, children, father or mother, in terms of section 7 (sub-sec-tion 3) of the Expeditionary Forces Amendment Act, 1918.