Mr J. H. F. Hamel said that, at a conference of the executives of the friendly societies, questions with reference to sick benefits were discussed, as well as the danger of overlapping and exploitation.
The deputation was the result, and represented something like 13,000 members of societies, while, if the families of these were included, the deputation would represent some 39,000 persons. The number of members who were serving with the Expeditionary Force was over 1000.
Questions would come before the executive touching on the administration of patriotic funds, and the deputation desired to know what steps would be taken to avoid overlapping in the giving of necessary assistance to returned soldiers.
At the friendly societies' conference the Government pensions, the assistance from patriotic bodies, and the provision of sick benefits had been considered, and it had been realised that there were possibilities of overlapping, and of the exploitation of funds.
Mr Hamel cited a case in which the various funds had been exploited through the overlapping of activities.
It was desired to know what was likely to be the method adopted by the association for distribution of funds, and it seemed unfortunate that the friendly societies had no representative on the committee of the association.
Such representation would tend to prevent a soldier obtaining money from different avenues of assistance which would amount in the aggregate to an unfair sum, and, if exploitation were attempted, any system would have to be very thorough to prevent it.
They desired to know if the methods of the association were of a character to avoid exploitation, and were prepared to do their best in helping to avoid leakage of funds.
They desired to be just, and even liberal, to those men who returned from the front; but they also wished to avoid leakage.
The deputation represented the Manchester Unity, the Foresters, the Independent Order, and the Druids, and these orders surely deserved some representation on the executive committee.
• Eight girls now are employed on the staff of the Bank of New Zealand at Auckland. The banks decided at the outset not to take on temporary male clerks during the war if it could possibly be avoided, but to keep open the places of their soldier employees and to allow them half pay.
The remaining employees have since cheerfully forgone their annual leave, and have worked overtime to keep things going.
The girls who have been taken on by the Bank of New Zealand in Auckland are employed as stenographers and typists, and in working adding machines, duties for which girls have long been utilised in commercial offices.
Mr H. Buckleton, the Auckland manger, states that the experiment is justified, and that the girls have probably come to stay, at least in that department, as routine work of the kind they are engaged for is not congenial to the average male clerk.
The men who come back from the war, therefore, will not be prejudiced by the change.
• Part of the Codfish Island, north west of Stewart Island, has been permanently reserved for scenic purposes. Sixty years ago it was a favourite rendezvous for whalers, there being a native village there, but the island has been uninhabited for a long period.
- ODT, 9.11.1915.
