WAR GRATUITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1920, Page 5

WAR GRATUITIES.

PROGRESS OF PAYMENT. GOOD PROGRESS REPORTED. It is stated that good progress is being made with the payment of the war gratuities. Up to Christmas Eve the total number of claims that had been met was 57,706, the payments representing a sum of £3,133,247. Applications are now being dealt with at the rate of over 6000 a week. Altogether, the total number of claims so far received By the War Expenses Office is somewhere in the vicinity of 80,000, and, as careful scrutiny has to be made of each claim before payment of the gratuity can be approved, it will probably be the middle of February before the whole of the amounts due to claimants will be paid. Complaint has been made that all the gratuities were not paid before Christmas- .In this connection the Minister of Defence (Sir James Allen) lias explained that, owing to the amount of svork involved in having all accounts audited before payment of the gratuity, it did not appear possible to complete the issue of gratuities before the middle of February. Gratuities were being dealt with in order of receipt, and the principle followed was that they be paid in that order; but some accounts presented more difficulties than others. In addition, some of the clerks dealing with the accounts were more proficient .than others, with the result that low numbered gratuity applications might appear on the surface to suffer delay. Steps had been taken to equalise the work.

In conversation with a Dominion reporter, the Officer in Charge of War Expenses (Colonel J. Hutchen, C.M.G.), stated that the work was being proceeded with as expeditiously as possible. The final claims to be dealt with would be those made in..respect to deceased soldiers. In the case of deceased men the process of paying the gratuities was somewhat slow because full and complete inquiry had to be made that the money was paid to the individuals to whom it was rightly due. Colonel Hutchen added that the War Expenses Office welcomed inquiry from any man who felt that there was undue delay in idealing with his application. By this means ft check could be kept on the work of the clerks, and there was less chance of claims being accidentally overlooked for the time being. Each application was given a serial number, and was supposed to be dealt with strictly in order of receipt, but sometimes an account might be slightly complicated, and for this reason a clerk would put the application aside in order to get on with other applications that present less difficulty. This was the reason why there occasionally appeared to be delay in disposing of claims. "However," remarked Colonel Hutchen, "we want to satisfy everybody, and to see that' everybody gets fair treatment. We don't want late applications to be dealt with before others made at an earlier date, therefore anyone who feels he has a grievance on this score should communicate with this office."

As showing tlie increase in the average daily payments since the amount of the gratuity was authorised by Parliament, the following statement its interesting:: Week ending October 11, J919, week ending October 18, 353; week ending October 25, 425; week ending November 1, 603; week ending November 8, 805; week ending November 15, 905; week ending November 22, 070; week ending November 22, 97V>; week ending December 6, 1039; week ending December IS. 1047 i weak oaduut Dscwnbtt St 1148.