WAR PENSIONS.
AMENDMENT TO ACT WANTED. THE MINISTER'S REPLY. A number of local bodies wrote to Mr. W. T. Jennings, M.P for Taumarunui, suggesting a meeting of Parliament for the purpose of amending the War Pensions Act. Mr. Jennings forwarded the communications on to the Minister of Defence, and has received the following reply: "With reference to the War Pensions Act, I shall be glad if you will ask the members of the" local bodies who have written to you to carefully peruse the War Pensions Act, because! think they will find that it is sufi'n-icntly wide to permit the Board to deal with pension questions in a libera) way, and .1. cannot see that there i< any necessity to call Parliament together 'to amend' the Act at the present time. In order that they may fully understand the reason whv a discretion was left in the hands of'the War Pensions Board with respect to pensions to dependants, including the wife of a soldier, I quote to you one actual case which has come under my notice, the widow of an officer who applied for a pension. She had in her own right £25,000 and other properly as well. Do they suggest that it would be advisable for the country to provide an additional pension for this ladv, or may J ask if they approve of the'principle which guided us in putting the War Pensions Avt on the Statute Book namely, that where the wife of a soldier was left well off, instead of providing her with a further income the money available, should be used for increasing the pensions of those not well off? It seems to me the principle adopted in drafting the War Pensions Act is a sound one, and I am persuaded that they have not fully understood the provisions of the Act. It is true that m considering some of the first applications the Board did not interpret some sectons as liberally as they might have, but they have reconsidered most of the pensions first dealt with and have now assessed them upon a more liberal basis I think you will find the Act is workine well." 5
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Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1916, Page 2
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363WAR PENSIONS. Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1916, Page 2
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