WAR GRATUITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 June 1920, Page 7

WAR GRATUITY.

PAYMENTS ALMOST COMPLETED. ABOUT 5000 STILL UNPAID. As far as regular applications for the war service gratuity are concerned the payments have now. practically ceased. Lieutenant-Colonel J. W. Hutchen, officer ,in charge of the War Expenses Department, informed a New Zealand Times reporter that up till Saturday last there had been paid out in gratuities a total of £5,276,000, representing about 91,000 applications. There were something over 100,000 men in the Expeditionary Force, said the colonel, but it would be realised that this number included some thousands who were not entitled to the gratuity, and others who had returned to the Dominion and again left on active service. This reduced the number of soldiers actually entitled to the payment to about 96,000. About 1000 of the 5000 who still had a claim to the gratuity might represent men who obtained their discharge in England, but the returns of the actual number were still to come to hand. The names and addresses of the remainder who had not made any application, had been ascertained, and their dues would be paid out to them as soon as application was made. The department was now chiefly occupied in tba payment of the retrospective children'* allowance. In this connection there had also been a great deal of laxity in the forwarding of applications, and the department was communicating with those who were shown in the records to be entitled to the payment. The staff of the Expenses Branch has been reduced since December from about 480 to something like 150.