THE VETERANS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 127, 16 October 1912, Page 7

THE VETERANS.

GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSAL CONDEMNED. Says the Inglewood Record:—We cannot understand the position taken up by the Premier in this matter, as it is so totally at variance with the opinions expressed by him when simply Leader of the Opposition. In that position, when, speaking on the then Military Pensions Bill, Mr. Massey said, inter alia: " . . . I would like to see the Bill make provision to this effect: That in the case of every man who is in possession of the New Zealand war medal, or can prove that he was under fire during the Maori war—any man who can prove that he served a reasonable term in either British or colonial forces—should have for the'rest of his life, which will not be long, a pension of ten shillings a week. ... . We have had a number of petitions frchn them in recent years asking that justice should be done to them. They have asked for bread, and to-night are, so to speak, being given a stone. We are not doing bur duty by these men. I suppose this is the 'last, time the subject will Qome before the House, and I cannot resist the opportunity of protesting, on behalf of the old men, against what is being proposed by the Government." What have "the old men" done within less than a year to so entirely alter Mr. Massey's opinion of what is due, in justice, to "the old men" ?