Royal New Zealand Naval Association Inc.

By HANK SCHOUTEN - The Dominion Post | Thursday, 28 June 2007

KENT BLECHYNDEN/ Dominion Post
PAY-DAY: Toby Hikaka, 68, reflects on his time as an able seaman during the Malayan Emergency after the High Court ruled he is now entitled to a veteran's pension.

Foxton navy veteran Toby Hikaka has won a battle for his veteran pension after being turned down because of "inadequate proof" his ship had an operational role in the Malayan Emergency.

In a decision that could allow hundreds of others to get veterans pensions, High Court judge Justice Ronald Young found that the Secretary of War Pension's reasoning was unsatisfactory and he ruled that Mr Hikaka be paid.

Mr Hikaka, 68, was an able seaman on HMNZS Royalist and Pukaki during the Malayan Emergency, a state of emergency declared by the British colonial government of Malaya in 1948 and lifted in 1960.

He has a 100 per cent war disabilities pension because of a leg injury suffered while playing rugby in the navy and because of failing eyesight, which he says was related to his job as a gunnery fire controller.

But when he applied for a veterans pension, the Secretary of War Pensions, Jessie Gunn, and the Social Security Appeal Authority turned him down.

Their argument was that, though the ships Mr Hikaka was on were deployed as part of the Commonwealth Strategic Reserve in the seas off Malaya, they did not take part in operations.
Justice Young said the secretary was wrong to say the ships had to do more than be present off the coast of Malaya as a deterrent.

He also criticised her reliance on limited records of what HMNZS Royalist did in 1959 while Mr Hikaka was on board.

"It was obviously unsatisfactory for the Crown to refuse a pension because of inadequate proof arising from its failure to keep proper records.

The fact that nothing happened when a ship was there that gave the visit an air of emergency or urgency, is neutral."

Justice Young said Mr Hikaka had established that his service was during an emergency and he was therefore entitled to the pension.

The ruling delighted Mr Hikaka and the Returned and Services Association, which backed his case.

"I served overseas and served my country and there was no recognition of it," he said.
The pension payment would provide assistance to his wife in the event of his death and would continue to be paid if he had to go into a retirement home or hospital.

RSA president John Campbell said many veterans had served in the waters around Malaya and Indonesia.

The fact they never fired a shot was irrelevant.