The Military Pensions Bill.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 265, 4 October 1902, Page 1

The Military Pensions Bill.

The Military Pensions Bill extends the operation of the Military Pensions Extension to the Contingents Act, 1900. to the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth sNew Zealand Contingents. It also proposes to repeals ction 4 of the principal Act, and to substitute a danse providing that ilu Governor may from tim* to time appoint a board, consisting qf not less than three medical practitioners, whose duty it shall be to inquire into every claim for a pension or gratuity in r-spoct of a wound or injury received m the actual performance of military duty, or in respect of the death ot. any officer, non-commissioned officer, or private who died in New Zealand, and report thereon to the Governor. No such pension or gratuity is to be granted except on the unanimous recommendation of the Board. With regard to the conditions under the Act of 1866, "’tinder which a pension may be granted to a widow, the Bill provides that instead of it being necessary for the death having taken place “ within six months of his being first certified to be ill,” it shall be a condition that he must have “ been removed from duty on account of such illness, provided the illness be certified to have commenced during and as the result of active operations, or if he died in consequence of injuries received- in the performance of military duty otherwise than in action within twelve months after having been injured. The pensions granted under the principal Act to widows whose husbands were killed, and in cases where the father was killed in action are extended to include those who within twelve months died of their wounds. A similar extension is proposed to cases where the J husband or father died from illness contracted iu the field.