R. S. A.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 8, 7 May 1920, Page 10

R. S. A.

MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION BY L^THLAND'L M.'s P. The following is published for general information : — Dear sir, — In accordance with the suggestion by the Southland Members of Parliament to the deputation of returned soldiers who waited on them recently, we now forward you, a list of reforms which our Association, as well as the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, is endeavouring to get carried into immediate effect. We shall be glad if you will inform the deputation which intends to wait upon you on the 12th inst. , whether you approve of these reforms and to what extent you are prepared to support them. — Yours etc., SECRETARY. REPATRIATTON AND LAND. 1. — To raise the business allowance from £300 to £500. 2. — To transfer the whole matter of dwellings and building sections for returned soldiers from the Land Boards to the Repatriation Boards. 3. — To have a single Minister for repatriation. 4. — To place the administration of all soldiers financial assistance matters in the hands of the Repatriation Department. 5. — To make soldiers' financial assistance allowances in respect of rent, interest, insurance premiums, etc., payable as of right and irrespective of hardships. 6. — To make soldiers' financial assistance allowances retrospective to August 1914. 7. — To open up large estates for soldier settlement, beginning with largest estate of say a value of £100,000 and over and proceding in order of magnitude until the demand is satisfied by compulsory acquisition at a price to be determined by a special board, composed of on.e representative of the Government, two of the N.Z.R.S.A., and three of the farming * commuiiity. 8. — To increase the loan to settlers for building a home (now £250), as follows, single man £250, man and wilie £400, for each child £50 extra. _ 9. — To prohibit the sale of rfiral land of the value, of over £7500, uriless an option to purchase be first given to the Land's Purchase Boards. 10.— To issue instructions to Land Boards to discontinue the present practice of advancing less than the Bba-rd's valuer's valuation of farms being purchased by returned soldiers. 11. — To remit all stamp duties on saies of land to returned soldiers (this to be retrospective). 12. — To exempt returned soldiers from land tax to the full extent of their mortgages. 13. — To reduce valuation fees for soldiers' dwellings and building sections to 10s 6d. 14. — To abelish the loading of 10 per cent. on properties purchased by the Government for soldiers' settlement, thus handing these properties to the soldiers at actual cost, plus expenses actually in - curred. 15.- — To allow the rebate of -i, per cent. for punctual payment of instalments, thus giving the soldier the same advantages as the mortagee to the Government State Advances Office. 16. — To instruct Land Boards to supply each soldier applicant with a written copy of the valuation made by the Government valuer. 17. — That when necessary to assist soldiers with limited capital, the first year's rent on improAred lands % and the first three years' rent on unimproved lands be capitalised. 18. — That a representative of the Returned Soldiers' Association be appointed to each Land Board. 19. — That the Government make immediate arrangements to have ample money available for the purchase of land and dwellings by returned soldiers. PAY, MEDICAL AND PENSIONS, 20. — To support the proposed plus scheme of pension as follows : — That the schedule of pensions for specific injuries of the War Pensions Act, 1917, No. 16, be increased by the addition o? plus percentages up to 150 per cent (that is £3 per week), supplementary pension and attendant's allowance to. be over and above such rates. 21.— The Pension Act at present in force provides for pension for total disability. Now, broadly speaking the disability suffered by the incapacitated man is of two kinds: A. — Physieal, viz., suffering and general inconveraence. B. — Economi-c, viz., the disability v;hich is due to loss of earning power ox inability

- to follow a chosen career. Let us now take some typical cases to illustrate the necessity for assessing a with two children was before the war in an assured position earning £11 per week. At the war he lost his right arm, was badly smashed up and is slowly dying as a result. The utmost that- the State can provide is a pension of £6 per week for family. This amount is the equivalent of about £4 at the pre-war cost of living. In this case in addition to dying as a result of his injuries the soldier's income has been reduced by 60 per cent., and the State says it cannot do more. Cases of this kind might be cited indefinitely. The crudity' of the present system of pensions arises from the following facts a.— Any given injury is assumed by the law as it stands to have resulted in identical "disability." As has been shown, the real disability depends very largely on the occupation of the individual. b, — -Each individual pensioner is assumed to have some particular (but unspecifiad) earning capacity at some average (but unspecified) occupation, and his pension is adjusted accordingly. To some extent vocational training provides alternative employment for incapacitated moa but this is effective in most cases to only a very " limited extent in restoring pre-war earning power, and in cases of real total disability does not apply to all. It is obvious that the departments of pensions and repatriation are both dealing inadequately and inequitably with the economic disability in nearly every case. The true responsibility of the State is thus ostensibly dealt with by two departments, but is fully discharged by neither. The first essential of an efficient scheme of pension administration is that the functions of the two departments, which will deak with physical and economical disability respectively should be clearly deTined. The Pensions' Department should confine itself to the physical disability purely and a schedule of pensions for particular injuries would be largely applicable. Its work would then become much more simple, and the assessment would be relatively automatic. The Repatriation Department should have exclusive and exhaustive control of the economic factor in every case. Vocational, functional, and general educational training should be included under its administration. In some cases. a disabled soldier would be drawing a pension in respect to physical disability only, in others possible . -nomic disability only, but in many cases in respect to both. 22. — To grant pensions to returned soldiers' wives, proportionate to those granted to soldiers. 23. — To forbid any medical officer or board, examining an applicant for a soldier's pension or renewal of same, to ask any question as to what salary the applicant is receiving. 24. — To establish a Pensions' Appeal Board. 26. — To make the increase of officers' pay retrospective to August, 1914. 25. To make pensions to widowed mothers retrospective to date of son's death, and not as now from application. 27. — To make veneral disease compulsorily notifiable. 28. — To grant every soldier suffering from tuberculosis, treatment in a sanalorium until his health is satisfactory. 29. — To exempt soldiers' pensions from ■ income tax. 30. — To make all allowances payable to soldiers or their dependants without the necessity of application being made. 31. — To place the Defence Department in the same position as all other Government Departments as regards the payment of the War Expenses Department Of superanuation paremium of members on. Active Service. 32. — To make Defence Dlepartment bonuses applica,ble to members on Active Service abroad as well as to those remaining in N.Z. 33. — To have Anzac Day declared a statutory holiday.