THE PENSIONS SCHEME.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 February 1918, Page 7

THE PENSIONS SCHEME.

lIOW PENSIONS ARE CHANTED. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, Feb. 1-1. A medical man, speaking at. a reception to returned soldiers in Otago, is reported to have referred to the "meanness of the pension system" and stated that the Government '"had not been ashamed to make use of the medical profession to (persuade, crippled soldiers that they are only partially disabled when as a matter of fact they are totally disabled." The suggestion made by the doctor was that soldiers had been induced by inaccurate medical reports to accept pensions lower than they were actually entitled to receive, If the doctor has been correctly reported, he was speaking with imperfect knowledge of the system. The granting of a. pension does not preclude the soldier from securing a re-hearing. If a discharged soldier, regarded by the board as partially crippled, were granted a pension on the assumption that Ills earning power had not disappeared,, and he found subsequently that his disablement was complete, he would have no difficulty at all in getting a re-hearing of his case. The Government has appointed a returned soldier a member of the Pensions Board. This member, Mr. J. B- Harper, is at present acting-president ; of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association. A war pension granted to a discharged soldier cannot bo reduced, but. it can bo increased. ■There is another point to which 1' authorities have drawn attention in this connection. The medical officers here and in other parts of the Empire have learned by experience that the recovery of a wounded soldier is often largely a matter of effort, mental and physical, on •the part of the man himself. A cheerful spirit, a hopeful outlook properly directed olTort will overcome or remedy disabilities that science could not cure unaided. The doctors would not 'be justified in describing a man as "totally disabled" if there was any reasonable chance of the extent of his disability being reduced. Tt is recognised that when the pensions are granted the injuries often have not reached their final development. That is what the pwer to increase pensions later is left in the hands c'-the Board. The reason why a pension once granted cannot be reduced U that the Government wishes to encour. ase disabled soldiers to learn trades and make themselves productive members of the community, The man who has been, granted a pension in respect of the loss of. one arm, for example, will retain his nev.sion even if he is able eventually to earn a good salary bv the use of the remaining arm. No* disabled or partially disabled soldier need fear that by increasing his earning power, through study and effort., he will risk any reduction of his pension.