RETURNED SOLDIERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 March 1919, Page 5

RETURNED SOLDIERS.

HARDSHIPS SHOULD BE REMOVED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, March 27. Some eases of hardships to returned soldiers were stated by Mr. Hutcheson at a meeting of the War Relief Association. Mr. liutcheson said that many soldiers when they went to the front had Government mortgages on their homes and half-yearly payments on these mortgages made up the interest and instalments on the principal. The soldiers' Financial Assistance Board made grants for the proportion of payments representing interest, but the principal had to stand over and the soldiers expected that when they returned they would be allowed to leave these payments of principal till the end of the mortgage term. Mow they found themselves, after a year or 18 months' absence, debited with the accumulated instalments, which were stated as arrears, and untij these arrears were paid off they could fiot obtain discount from the State Advances Office. As the accumulated principal and instalment amounted ill some cases to £4O or £SO. many soldiers were unable to pay them oil'. The superintendent of the Advances Office stated that there was no legal authority whatever for suspending the enforcement of these penalties in the case of soldiers without special legislation.