WAR PENSIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 May 1917, Page 5

WAR PENSIONS.

A BIG LIABILITY. _ The cost to tho Dominion of war pensions is steadily mounting up. Last week 411 new pensions were granted, representing an annual value of £O3OO. Up to the 31st March last the total annual value of pensions granted was in round figures £270,000. From Ist April to date IS soldiers' pensions have been granted, of an annual value, of £799, averaging £44 a year. Thirty-two widows (witl|| 45 >ehildren) have heen granted pensions of an annual valuo of £27Bs—average, £B7 a year; and 111 other dependents have heen granted pensions aggregating £3537 a year—average £3lO. Thu temporary soldiers' pensions number 483; annual value, £34,084; average, £75. At tho end of last financial year the average soldiers' pension was £53; the average is now £75 a year, as against a maximum pension of £95 a year. Fifty-five wives of soldiers with 84 children have been granted pensions since Ist April. These pensions aggregate £3162, or an average of £4B per pension. In all '679 pensions and allowances have been granted since tho beginning of the financial year, with a total annual value of £44,367; average £OS a year. Including the £270.000 granted last year, the net liability of the State to date is, roughly, £314,000 a year.