Uploaded pix which appear on the Desert Column Forum.
Western Mail, Thursday, 14 November 1929, p. 2.
Assessment Appeal Tribunal
Mr. H. H. Howard, chairman of the Assessment Appeal Tribunal, was a visitor to the last meeting of the R.S.L. State executive. In responding to a welcome by Colonel Collett, he gave an interesting resume of the activities of his tribunal. He stated that he, a lawyer, was chairman, and, according to the special nature of each applicant s disability (chest, ear, surgical, etc.), so were two doctors, specialists in that particular form of disability, called in to comprise the other two members of the tribunal. He paid a tribute to the manner in which this State's cases had been put forward, and to the obvious sincerity (whether they were successful or not) in which the applicants had placed before the tribunal the facts which they thought would support their claims for increases, Mr. Howard stated that the idea of the tribunal was to get at the facts. Legal formalities were not considered. At the conclusion of the evidence and the medical examination, the tribunal conferred, and announced its decision there and then to the waiting applicant. He asked the league to make it known that appeals to the Assessment Board may only be made after an application for an increase in pension has been rejected by the Repatriation Commission. Notice of appeal to the Assessment Tribunal must be lodged within three months of the announcement of the unfavourable decision of the Commission. Mr. Howard has since returned to the East. He was a member of the 40th Battalion (Tasmania) "over there."