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The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1900. FOLLOWING OUR LEAD.

For the cause that lacks assistance For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future m the distance, And the good that we oan do.

The passage of the Old Ago Pensions Bill by the New South. Wales Parliament signalises the inauguration in the Mother Colony of a sociopolitical experiment which New Zealand was the first country in the Empire to make. There is not a little satisfaction to us in the thought that the most powerful State of the Commonwealth has now joined bands with us to solve the great problem o? succouring the aged poor by the system of State pensions. This colony has been held rash for tho step it took in this direction, and hence it is some -justification of our action, as well as an assurance of the continuance here and extension elsewhere of the system, to find New South Wales with us. The probability is that the sister colonies of Australia will follow her example, and we may look forward to see the ■ law which has just been passed in the one being recognised throughout all before long. The early prospect of such a consummation is certain to attract a notice that the more limited experiment of New Zealand on the same lines might fail to do. and to win more quickly for the system the practical trial which the legislators of Great Britain hesitate to accord it. Already the experience of New Zealand in the matter of Old Age Pensions has been the subject of much consideration, but it lias not been accepted as affording reliable data for judging what would be the success or otherwise of the scheme if introduced into other countries. Our comparatively small population and the conditions of life here give us a position little analogous to that of Great Britain. The extension of the experiment to another Anglo-Saxon community, twice our size, and presenting more than we do, we believe, those aspects of poverty familiar to the Old World, will greatly widen the area of investigation for those who are anxious to gain a thorough insight into the working of State pensions.

The Now South Wales Old Agz Pension list will necessarily be a much longer one than ours. The population of the colony is practically double that of New Zealand, and we would judge that it includes a larger percentage of individuals who will claim the pension than this colony. By reducing the age limit from sixtv-five —the lowest age here at which application can be made —to sixty, the number of pensioners will be further materially increased. We are not aware of the precise alteration the measure has undergone since it was submitted to the New South Wales Legislature, but originally it was decidedly more generous than our law, both in regard to the age clause and the amount of the pension. The full amount of State aid to which a pensioner is here entitled under the Act is £18 per annum, or slightly less than 7/ per week. The New South Wales Government's proposal was for 10/ a week, almost half as much again. Evidently on the other side they pitch the standard of bare living higher than we do, or the public money is of. less object. Probably, however, if the pension has not been already reduced in the passage of the Bill through Parliament, it will suffer curtailment later on. The experience of this colony of the way the pension fund has advanced from the £100,000 per annum, which Mr Scddon estimated at the outsetwould be required, to £200,000, preaches the'1 great risk of under calculation. It is considered by the New South Wales authorities that the pension scheTne will cost the colony from £400.000 to half a million per annum, and part of this amount the Premier expects to save by reduction in the vote for public charities. The chances are that there will be no curtailment of the ordinary demands on the public purse in that latter respect, and it would not surprise us if even the half million proved inadequate for the purpose prescribed.

The Government of the Mother Colony have taken up the scheme with a lipht heart. They helieve that New South Wales can well stand the strain, particularly in the near future, when the introduction of a Federal tariff—hased upon acompromise between free trade and Victor-

iaii protection —will largely increase the revenue from Customs sources. Everyone will wish that it may be so, and that the experiment first made under the Southern Cross by New Zealand will become the policy of Federated Australia. We, though first in the field, may learn something from the efforts of those who are following in our footsteps. The establishment of an Old Age Pension scheme is not the work of a day. With the increased knowledge of its working under the conditions existing here we shall doubtless see fit to modify it many times and in many respects. There is little to be gained by us from a study of the New South AVales measure until it has been in operation for some time, and its provisions have been put to the practical test; but there is one provision which, without trial, will commend itself to many in this colony. It is the clause which prohibits the supplying intoxicants to State pensioners. Our Act merely requires that the pensioner should lead a sober life. The New South AVales law, it would seem, means to make a total abstainer of him.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19001205.2.41

Bibliographic details

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 289, 5 December 1900, Page 4

Word Count
941

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1900. FOLLOWING OUR LEAD. Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 289, 5 December 1900, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1900. FOLLOWING OUR LEAD. Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 289, 5 December 1900, Page 4