Our First Foreign War by Nigel Robson

Author:Nigel Robson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Massey University Press
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

‘Paltry pensions’

Though politicians had displayed a degree of unity during the 1899 contingent debate, this temporary suspension of party rivalry was short-lived. When the question of providing pensions for soldiers disabled in South Africa first arose in Parliament in 1899, Seddon prevaricated, dismissing it as a matter ‘for future consideration’.108 Only days after the South African War began, the issue was again raised by Seddon’s political adversary, Waitematā MHR Richard Monk. Without elaborating, Seddon confirmed that the New Zealand government would pay pensions.109

The 1866 Military Pensions Act did not provide support for the dependants of contingent members who were killed or injured as a result of the South African War. Initially, there was also no official provision for those whose health suffered as a result of war-related disease or accidents. Another of Seddon’s political rivals, Hawke’s Bay MHR Captain William Russell, sought to address this in July 1900. Like Monk before him, in Parliament Russell questioned Seddon about the pension issue. Russell recommended that while Parliament’s appreciation of the contingents’ services was ‘still keen’ it should adequately provide for those who had suffered during the war. Seddon replied that he believed Parliament did not support the awarding of pensions, adding that injured soldiers were retained on full pay subject to medical board examinations. He assured his fellow parliamentarians that if soldiers’ injuries were deemed permanent they could receive a lump sum or, subject to parliamentary approval, an annual payment.110

Changing tack, Russell then pressed Seddon on the issue of widows and orphans. The premier conceded that in some cases married troopers had managed to enlist despite their official exclusion. Seddon was nonetheless prepared to acknowledge that the government ‘could not punish the widow in such cases, or visit the shortcomings of the father on the children’.111 Instead, he proposed widows and orphans receive funds from the £50,000 raised through patriotic contributions. However, as casualties and the incidence of typhoid rose, the government finally relented and the Military Pensions Extension to Contingents Act 1900 was passed.112 The act contained schedules of men covered by the legislation. It did not, however, extend to New Zealanders who had joined irregular corps in South Africa or those who had served in the armies of other nations. Pension legislation enacted in 1901, 1902 and 1903 either extended the provisions of the 1900 legislation to include later contingents or amended the earlier act.113 None of the various acts made provision for New Zealand nurses who had served in South Africa, as they did so ‘at the disposal of the Army Medical Department’.114

In Parliament, Seddon noted that a number of men invalided home from the war arrived penniless and, in some cases, wearing the same ragged uniforms they had on when admitted to hospital in South Africa. The premier said that despite these men being welcomed on arrival, ‘what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business’. Despite substantial sums remaining from public subscriptions, parliamentarians on occasion personally advanced money to men who were essentially destitute on arrival. While stopping

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.