PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION SUED.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17164, 22 March 1927, Page 3

PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION SUED.

Presa Association. j

RETURNED SOLDIER'S CLAIM.

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I AUCKLAND.. Last Night. An unsusnal case was heard in the ; Magistrate's Court before Mr CutI ten, S.M., in which a returned soldier, Arthur Stafford, sought to recover from Sir James Gunson (president) and T. B. Hay (secretary) of the Auckland Patriotic War Relief Association £58 2s 6d. The clerk intimated that the hearing fe-e of 25s had to be paid, but plaintiff said he could not pay it until he got his pension. Plaintiff said he came back wounded from Gallipoli, and got a military pension, but he had been refused further assistance hy the Patriotic Association. ! Mr Cutten: Surely the Patriotic ' Association lias tl^e right to administer th'e money it holds in trust Plaintiff: That money was raised for returned soldiers. Mr Johnston said Stafford returned to New Zealand seriously woundj ed. He had a military pension of j £4 per month. In 1920 he went to j Engand and came back in 1925. j From time to time the Patriotic As- | sociation had supplied him witli i small sums of money. Plaintiff was | now getting a military pension' of ! £1 per week and also an economic > pension of 30s. He had asked for j his board to be paid, but the Assoi ciation thought that a single man | with £2 10s per week should he ; able to pay his own board. | Plaintiff stated that £2 10s was | not enough for a man to live upon. > "I am appealing for justice as a : British-born subject !" I Mr Cutten saicl the Court had no ■ jurisdic'tion as to how the Patriotic ' Association must administer the i funds under its control. He woud ' however, adjourn the case to enable '■ the plaintiff to pay the hearing fee.