THE PENSIONS BOARD.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1916, Page 6

THE PENSIONS BOARD.

BUSINESS INCREASES DAILY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Feb. 23. Tlis business of the War Pensions Board i 3 still increasing in volume. During the last two weeks 126 applications for pensions have been received from soldiers and 51 from dependents Tlie figures show a big increase in the number of soldiers' applications, due partly to the discharge of many men from the hospitals and convalescent camps and partly to the rule now enforced by the Defence Department that the question of making application for a pension shall be brought under the notice of eacli man when he is recommended for discharge by a medical board. Last -week the Board dealt with 100 applications, 87 from soldiers and 33 from dependants. The decisions of the Board may be summarised as follows: Soldiers: 12 pensions. 30 allowances, 10 declined, 9 adjourned for further reports. Dependents: 29 pensions, 1 allowance, 2 declined, 1 adjourned. The allowance was made in the case of a wife whose husband is also receiving an allowance. The gross totals of the eases dealt with up to February 19 were as follows:—Soldiers: 111 pensions, 164 allowances, 44 declined, 19 adjourned. 41 in hand; total, 373. Dependents: 4SI pensions, 4 allowances, 40 declined, 2 adjourned, 23 in hand; total, 506. Grand total, 945. The annual value of the pensions granted up to the present time Is £26,925. The 491 dependents who have received pensions include 112 wives. Of the 12 soldiers who were granted pensions last week, two received £7.8 per year, four £52, one £39, and five £2B. The Pensions Board's treatment of wives of men who have fallen is illustrated in the following cases:—The wife of a lieutenant was allowed a pension of £1 per week, the reduction from the full amount of £2 being made on the ground that she was earning £l3O per year as a school teacher. This case ha« been reconsidered and the full pension granted. The wife of a rifleman killed on Christmas Day lias been granted the full pension of 25s weekly; she has a home valued at £BOO. The wife of a captain, with some property a nd £SOO insurance money, has been granted the full pension of £2 as weekly, with 5s per week each for three children, total £143 per year. The wife of a lieutenant receives from her husband's estate an income of £260 per year and she has received insurance money amounting to £IOOO. She receives the full pension of £lO4 per year, with £2O per year in respect of two children. The fuil pension has been granted to every widow who has applied recently, and the great majority of the reduced pensions granted early in the Board's administration have since been made up to the maximum. In very few cases have widows of privates received less than the full pension, and in these cases there have been special' circumstances, such as.the fact that the wife had not been living with her husband and had not been supported by him. Among the soldiers who were refused pensions last week, one had a u injury to his back, contracted while on leave';, he had never been on active service. One man claimed on account of deafness. The' evidence showed that lie had suffered from deafness before the war and that it. did not interfere with his occupation. A man who had been discharged on account of general debility was reported by a medical board to be quite fit again. A case of ear trouble was shown to be one of four years' standing ; the man had not contracted it on service. A man who had hernia was shown not to have contracted it on service. A soldier who had been wounded was shown to have taken part in swimming races recently and to he apparently per" fectlv (it. ' 1