EX-SOLDIERS’ RELIEF

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19889, 19 May 1936, Page 3

EX-SOLDIERS’ RELIEF

MEN REFUSE TO'WORK. TROUBLE AT DUNEDIN. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Monday. The method under which the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association grants relief from Poppy Day funds to disabled ex-servicemen is likely to be reconsidered as a result of the refusal of a number of the men engaged under the scheme to carry out the work allotted to them. The practice of tue association has been to place the men under the supervision of the reserves department of the City Council, which obtains the benefit of any work that they do, but the men are said to nave adopted the view that they should not be required to work and that relief should be granted in the form of direct payments from the fund. Although the president of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association, Mr H. L. Paterson, refused to make any statement with respect to the position, it is understood an official of the City Corporation visited Chisholm Park at the end of last week and found that more than 20 men engaged there under the Poppy Day scheme were not working and that a number of them was actually sleeping. He took their names and forwarded- them to the Returned Soldiers’ Association, which it is understood has terminated the services of the men in the meantime.

The matter is to be considered at a meeting of the association to-morro'w night, and it is reported that on this occasion the desirability of changing the system under which relief is granted from the fund will be discussed.